Invited Presenter
Carl A. Bradley 1
1. University of Kentucky, Department of Plant Pathology, Princeton, KY
Corresponding Author: Carl A. Bradley, carl.bradley@uky.edu
Bradley, Carl
Fusarium head blight (FHB) remains one of the most important diseases affecting soft red winter wheat and winter barley in the southern Ohio Valley. Although the basic principles of FHB management are well established, many management decisions are complicated by differences in crop growth stage, cultivar resistance, weather conditions, disease risk, and fungicide application timing. Questions such as whether a fungicide application is warranted when predicted FHB risk is low, how to manage fields with uneven flowering, how late a fungicide can be applied and still provide benefit, and whether cultivar resistance should influence the decision to apply a fungicide often do not have simple answers. Additional uncertainty surrounds the level of disease and deoxynivalenol (DON) suppression that can realistically be expected from a fungicide application and how management approaches should differ between wheat and barley. Effective FHB management requires integrating cultivar resistance, crop growth stage, local weather conditions, disease-risk information, and appropriate fungicide selection and timing rather than relying on any single management tactic. Understanding how these factors interact is critical for making informed, field-specific decisions and illustrates why, for many of the most difficult questions surrounding FHB management, the most accurate answer is often “it depends.”
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