Strategies to reduce DON contamination of wheat with different soil tillage and variety systems

Abstract

With the focus on minimizingFusarium head blight and the deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination of wheat a three year crop rotation system starting with forage maize and followed by two years of winter wheat was combined with three soil tillage systems and selected plant varieties with varying susceptibility toFusarium infection.

Higher DON concentrations were generally observed in wheat grain when the soil was mulched rather than ploughed, depending on the mass of maize residues remaining on the soil surface. Maize residues are the most important source ofFusarium inoculum. Infected maize residues had a main impact on the level of DON contamination in wheat grain particularly in the first year after maize cultivation. When the maize stubble was chopped before mulching, the decomposition of the residues was speeded up and the DON contamination of the wheat grain was lower. In the second year following the maize crop, the decomposition of the maize residues/Fusarium biomass was nearly complete and the infection risk was reduced considerably. An influence of the susceptibility of the maize variety against stem rot on the DON concentration of the succeeding winter wheat crop was not observed. The less susceptible wheat variety was suitable for controlling the higher infection risk deriving from the introduction of maize in wheat rotation and the use of mulching techniques.