With the abnormal twists and turns in the weather, where we had the past few weeks as dry and hot, this week starting from the weekend has been pretty wet and cool. The weather has provided some relief to the drought-like conditions that the wheat plants were showing the last week. However, this weather is also conducive to FHB development, especially in the susceptible varieties. Wheat is currently flowering across the state of Maryland. Flowering is when yellow anthers emerge out of the wheat spikes. If you have planted a susceptible variety for FHB, you should consider applying FHB fungicides. If you are planning to apply fungicides for FHB, remember that triazole-containing fungicides (Miravis-Ace, Prosaro, Prosaro-Pro, and Sphaerex) should be used for controlling FHB. They can control other fungal pathogens like powdery mildew, rusts, in addition to scab. Strobilurin-containing fungicides should not be used at this stage. These fungicides do not need to be tank mixed with anothe r product for spraying. The fungicide products should be applied at the full rate recommended by the manufacturers. Aerial application at a rate of 5 gallons per acre or ground application at 15 gallons per acre with 300-350 um droplet size is recommended. Spray nozzles should be angled at 30-45 deg down from horizontal, toward the grain heads, using forward- and backward mounted nozzles or nozzles with a two directional spray, such as Twinjet nozzles.

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