Public
interest in sourcing local foods has extended into beverages leading to a rapid
expansion of the northeast malting industry. This has provided farmers with new
market opportunities and many of these markets are interested in purchasing
certified organic barley. However, all farmers
are struggling to produce barley that is not infected with FHB and DON. Hence integrated management strategies
are essential for managing yield and quality losses from FHB. The objective of this study was to evaluate the
individual and interactive effects of moderately resistant cultivars and
application timings of conventional fungicides and an organic copper fungicide on
barley yield and the integrated management of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and
deoxynivalenol (DON) in Vermont.
Yield, test weight, and FHB incidence and severity did not differ statistically by treatment. There were significant differences between treatments for DON concentrations. All treatments and timings, including the control and the Fusarium inoculated plots, had DON concentrations below 1 ppm. Eight treatments had DON concentrations less than that of the uninoculated control (0.19 ppm). These included Miravis Ace at heading, Miravis Ace followed by Caramba, Miravis Ace followed by Prosaro, Miravis Ace at Feekes 10.3, Miravis Ace post heading, Caramba, and Prosaro. The Fusarium inoculated plots had the highest DON concentrations as expected, and they were statistically similar to only the three ChampION treatments and the control.
The DON concentrations in Genesis (0.08 ppm) were significantly lower than the DON concentration in Robust barley (0.22 ppm). When fungicide applications in this trial are compared, the results of this trial suggest that Miravis Ave applied at heading, whether combined with other products or not, was the most successful at reducing DON in comparison to an uninoculated control.