Wheat smut: prevention and disease control measures

The wheat smut is a type of fungal disease that can lead to a deterioration in the quality of the crop as a whole or its individual part. Danae infection spreads over cereals. Known types of wheat diseases include the following types of bunt:

• Indian;
• firm;
• dusty;
• dwarf;
• stem.

Each type of disease has its own characteristics and is distributed on a specific cereal. The common types of fungal disease of wheat include hard and dusty smut.

The causative agent of the disease is Tilletia caries. Determine the defeat of the disease, it is possible in the case, if you notice the destruction of its internal part. From the outside, the wheat remains unchanged.

This disease is dangerous for soft wheat varieties. The manifestation of the disease is usually observed during the milk ripeness of the cereal. The main features of solid smut:

• spikelets are small in size and flattened;
• scales are characterized by a distance;
• the grains are swollen and longer than in a healthy cereal;
• wheat has a characteristic blue-green color;
• there is an unpleasant smell;
• instead of grain, a spore mass with a black color is found;
• the ear loses weight and does not fall during ripening.

The causative agent of dusty smut is Ustilago tritici. At the time of the progressive disease on the plant, not only the inner part is affected, but also the grain shell. Most often, the infection affects spring and winter wheat.

The disease begins its cycle of development during the growing season of the plant, affecting its lower part. The infection is transmitted from infected seed to healthy, with the help of the wind.

The headache has the following symptoms:

• accelerated earing of the plant;
• the height of diseased wheat is greater than healthy;
• the ear has a scorched appearance;
• weak tillering of cereal is noticed;
• infected grain has a thin gray shell.

Dust smut is considered a dangerous disease that can deprive a farmer of the entire crop. Rapidly the disease develops, if the territory has a low temperature of air and soil, there is an autumn drought.

In some cases, infection with wheat smut may occur if the infection spores are in the soil. This mode of transmission of the fungus is not very common. Usually the infection of a healthy plant comes from the patient. The fragile infected grass falls into pieces, spores come out of it, which with the help of the wind fall on another plant.

An increase in the risk of infection is observed in such situations:

• with a rather deep immersion of seeds during planting;
• during long autumn droughts;
• when wheat is improperly planted.

The best temperature for spore activation is considered plus two - plus five degrees of heat.

In order to protect your crop from infection of the wheat smut, the following rules must be followed:

• Use healthy material during planting.
• Perform timely dressing.
• Insulate seeds from the rest of the wheat, at least a meter away.
• Sow wheat at fixed time limits. Late or early seeding increases the risk of disease.
• Use for planting a variety of cereal that is resistant to this infection.

In order to prevent contamination of the head of wheat, it is necessary to use fungicides for dressing planting material.

For this purpose, most often used TMTD and pentatiuram. It is necessary to carry out the procedure with the seeds that were collected from the affected fields even by 0.0001 percent. Perform this work is fifteen days before the time of sowing. To eliminate the fungus in the planting material, you can use "Raksil" or "Vitovaks".

Experienced farmers use “Seticor 050” (in the amount of 0.75-1.0 l / ton), “Devident Star 036” (in the amount of 1.0-1.25 l / t) to suppress pathogens. In the process of harvesting the spores of the fungus may linger on the inventory or container. Therefore, every used item needs to be disinfected. To do this, use a one percent solution of formalin.

In the case of solid and dusty smut, an effective control measure will be the etching of seed. Ways:

1. Dry. With this type of dressing powder powders are used. This work is carried out by the machine. Etched seeds are usually granosan, mercuran, hexachlorobenzene and TMTD. This method is imperfect, as the chemicals are poorly retained on the cereals.
2. With moistening. Etching occurs with a dispersed pesticide suspension. As a result, you can notice a good germination of seeds, a decrease in the number of infected cereals, as well as good yields. Processing is carried out using special machines, for example, PZ -10. To pickle is worth those chemicals that are used with the dry method.
3. Wet method involves the use of a formalin solution. This is a complex method of disinfecting seeds, so it is used with small amounts of cereals. Wet dressing is three operations that are performed sequentially: wetting, languishing and drying. This type of work is worth using five days before sowing.
4. Semi-dry dressing similar to the previous one, but does not require drying the grains.

During the fight against smut, use agrotechnological and organizational and economic complex processes. Spores that serve as causative agents of bunt persist in the soil on which the wheat grew. Their livelihoods will depend on environmental conditions. According to scientists, there are methods that help speed up the death of a smut spore, that is, stimulate self-decontamination of the soil.

If the soil is wet and heated by ten to twenty degrees, then adding manure to it and fertilizing it with minerals, you can kill the smut spores. Such conditions contribute to the death of the infection and the seeds that grow will not be infected with the disease. Well processing the soil, acquiring quality seeds and fulfilling all agrotechnical requirements, you can reduce the percentage of infection in the smut.

After harvesting and detection of the headache, the question arises: is it possible to use infected cereal?

Smut spores are capable of giving wheat an unpleasant odor and an unnatural color. That is why such flour makes poorly baked bread, which has a sweet aftertaste and smells unpleasant. The grains that were affected by the smut are a harmful impurity that is not advisable to use for meals.

In order to get rid of the smut of wheat, it must be washed in a washing machine, three times to handle the brush apparatus. This procedure will clean the surface of the cereal. After that, you need to mix clean and clogged grain. According to the quality standards of smut grain in wheat should not be more than ten percent.

See the following video on what is the head smut of wheat.