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Submitted by Mid Atlantic S… on 30, Apr 2022
Welcome to the FHB risk assessment for Maryland. This is our first commentary for this season, and they will be posted regularly throughout the small grain season from here on. Hopefully, you selected a resistant wheat variety for your planting this year after referring to the University of Maryland’s FHB evaluation of wheat varieties. A good start goes a long way in managing FHB.

Wheat in the Eastern shore of Maryland is either at jointing or booting stage and should be heading out in a week or so. Barley, however, is heading in most parts of the state. It is important to note that the correct stage for spraying fungicides on wheat is at flowering (when the yellow anthers start to show on the heads), whereas on barley it is at heading (when the heads emerge from the boots). Up in the north in Frederick, Harford and nearby counties, wheat plants are starting to joint, and are not at a stage prone for FHB.

The FHB risk is currently predicted to be low across the state. However, with the shower forecasted for this weekend, the risk may escalate in the coming weeks. The traditionally recommended fungicides for FHB are Prosaro, Miravis-Ace or Caramba at the right stage of the crop. Several new products are commercially available to the farmers this year for FHB management, including Sphaerex (from BASF) and Prosaro-Pro (from Bayer). Trials have been conducted over the past two years by pathologists at public Universities across multiple states (including by me at the University of Maryland) with these new products, and these new products were found to be equally effective in controlling FHB and DON in wheat and barley. The FHB-fungicides should be able to control any other foliar fungal diseases observed in wheat and barley (such as powdery mildew). Fungicides containing strobilurin should not be applied for control of FHB, as in multiple university research trials, strobilurin fungicides have been shown to increase DON levels in grain.

--Nidhi Rawat, Small Grains Pathologist, University of Maryland