Fungicides are becoming an important tool for producers who want to produce high-yielding, high quality wheat. Timing of the fungicide application and angle of application are important for getting the most out of this tool, according to Randy Myers, fungicide product manager with Bayer CropScience.

Scout fields early for diseases like leaf rust beginning about Feekes growth stage 7. For a disease like scab, there was a time when everyone recommended making fungicide treatments around Feekes growth stage 8, Myers said. Part of the reason was that, at the time, all the producers had to work with were contact type products.

“Now we have better tools and we don’t have to just think about growth stage 8,” Myers said. “We need to know what tools we have to produce higher quality wheat.”

The best time for fungicide treatments on wheat is when the most florets are protected, some time during early flowering. Prior to flowering is too early and after pollination is too late. Myers said to remember that glumes and awns might contribute 10 to 15 percent of the photosynthate accumulated in the grain. Be aware of what growth stage the wheat is in, to make applications in a timely fashion.

“Protect the green at all costs,” Myers said.

Give the fungicide the best chance to perform by making a proper application. Myers said rather than pointing the spray nozzle straight down, the producer will get better coverage by angling the nozzle 30 degrees down from horizontal. “Look at the target, these heads are all vertical,” Myers said. “If you look at the top, that is a very small target. So when you adjust the angle of the orifice so you spray in a forward direction, you will get a lot more product on the head.”

The goal is head coverage, not canopy penetration.

Fungicide application recommendations for ground application are to use a fine- to medium-sized drop with a flat-fan nozzle; angle nozzles forward to 30 to 45 degrees down from horizontal and position spray nozzles 8 to 10 inches above the grain heads.

One of the new tools that will be available to wheat producers in 2010 is Prosaro. Timely applications of Prosaro can control leaf and head diseases such as fusarium head blight, leaf rust, stem rust, septoria leaf and glume blotch, tan spot, and powdery mildew. Myers said Prosaro offers broad-spectrum disease control.

“It is a new chemistry and it brings a bigger hammer to the table,” Myers said.

Prosaro is a combination of Proline and Folicur. Proline provides longer residual activity for better disease control while Folicur provides rapid activity on diseases that have already infected the plant tissue.

“We need to be aware of what tools we have to produce higher quality wheat,” Myers emphasized.