Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Management of wheat and barley root diseases in modern farming systems

  • Published:
Australasian Plant Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Root diseases, namely take-all and Rhizoctonia, Pythium and Fusarium root rots, are so widespread and occur so uniformly within fields of wheat and barley in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) that we have come to accept these crops with these diseases as normal ‘healthy’ crops. The main reasons for the expanding range and increasing prevalence of root diseases on wheat and barley in this and many other cereal-growing areas of the world are two-fold: increased frequency of cereals in the rotation and the use of less, or no, tillage. Both trends are here to stay because of their economic advantages and environmental benefits. Managing these diseases in these modern farming systems is no small challenge since, unlike most leaf diseases of these crops, all cultivars of wheat and barley are more or less equally susceptible to all four root diseases. Through a combination of cultural practices, the severity of these diseases can at least be limited to ‘chronic’, while ‘acute’ outbreaks or what growers call ‘wrecks’, are relatively rare. These practices are timely and effective management of volunteer and grass weed hosts before planting; placement of fertiliser, especially phosphorus, beneath the seed within easy access of diseased roots; soil disturbance below the seed; trash removal from within the seed row; pairing the row for a more open canopy to favour warming and drying of soil beneath the crop residue; and the use of fresh seed and treatment of the seed with a combination of fungicides for improved seedling vigour. No equivalent effort has been made in any other crop to manage a disease complex without the benefit of host plant resistance. In spite of this, these practices, together with take-all decline, only elevate yields to about 80% of the potential as revealed by fumigated (methyl bromide) check plots. Future research must concentrate on the development of host plant resistance, including host plant resistance with transgenes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bolar JP, Norelli JL, Harman GE, Brown SK, Aldwinckle H S (2001) Synergistic activity of endochitinase and exochitinase from Trichoderma atroviride (T. harzianum) against the pathogenic fungus Venturia inaequalis in transgenic apple plants. Transgenic Technologies (in press).

  • Broglie K, Chet I, Holliday M, Cressman R, Biddle P, Knowlton S, Mauvais CJ, Broglie R (1991) Transgenic plants with enhanced resistance to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. Science 254, 1194–1197.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ (1980) Fusarium foot rot of wheat and its control in the Pacific Northwest. Plant Disease 64, 1061–1066.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ (1988) Biological control and holistic plant-health care in agriculture. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 3, 51–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ (1992) Wheat root health management and environmental concern. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 14, 76–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Chamswarng C, Tang W-h (1990) Influence of wheat chaff and tillage on Pythium populations and Pythium damage to wheat. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 22, 939–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Haglund WA (1982) Pythium root rot: A barrier to yield of Pacific Northwest wheat. Washington State College of Agricultural Research Bulletin No. XB0913. 20 pp.

  • Cook RJ, Haglund WA (1991) Wheat yield depression associated with conservation tillage caused by root pathogens in the soil not phytotoxins from the straw. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 23, 1125–1132.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Ownley BH, Zhang H, Vakoch D (2000) Influence of pairedrow spacing and fertiliser placement on yield and root diseases of direct-seeded wheat. Crop Science 40, 1079–1087.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Sitton JW, Haglund WA (1987) Influence of soil treatments on growth and yield of wheat and implications for control of Pythium root rot. Phytopathology 77, 1192–1198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Sitton JW, Waldher JT (1980) Evidence for Pythium as a pathogen of direct drilled wheat in the Pacific Northwest. Plant Disease 64, 1061–1066.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Veseth RJ (1991) ‘Wheat health management.’ (APS Press: St. Paul, MN)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook RJ, Zhang BX (1985) Degrees of sensitivity to metalaxyl within the Pythium spp. pathogenic to wheat in the Pacific Northwest. Plant Disease 69, 686–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garren KH (1965) In ‘Ecology of soilborne plant pathogens’ (Eds KF Baker and WC Snyder) p. 478 (University of California, Berkeley Press)

  • Gonsalves D (1998) Control of papaya ring spot virus in papaya; a case study. Annual Review of Phytopathology 36, 415–437.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hering TF, Cook RJ, Tang W-h (1987) Infection of wheat embryos by Pythium species during seed germination and the influence of seedage and soil matric potential. Phytopathology 77, 1104–1108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram DM, Cook RJ (1990) Pathogenicity of four Pythium species to wheat, barley, peas, and lentils. Plant Pathology 39, 110–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim DS, Cook RJ, Weller DM (1997a) Bacillus spp. L324-92 for biological control of three root diseases of wheat grown with reduced tillage. Phytopathology 87, 551–558.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim DS, Weller DM, Cook RJ (1997b) Population dynamics of Bacillus spp. L324-92R12 and Pseudomonas fluorescens 2-79RN10 in the rhizosphere of wheat. Phytopathology 87, 559–564.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Linde-Laursen I, Jensen HP, Jørgensen, JH (1973) Resistance of Triticale, Aegilops, and Haynaldia species to the take-all fungus, Gaeumannomyces graminis. Zeitschrift für Pflanzenzüchten 70, 200–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas P, Smiley W, Collins HP (1993) Decline of Rhizoctonia root rot on wheat in soils infested with Rhizoctonia solani AG-8. Phytopathology 83, 260–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorito M, Woo SL, Fernandez IG, Colucci G, Harman GE, Pintor-Toro JA, Filippone E, Muccifora S, Lawrence CB, Zoina A, Tuzun S, Scala F (1998) Genes from mycoparasitic fungi as a source for improving plant resistance to fungal pathogens Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95, 7860-7865. MacNish GC (1985) Methods of reducing Rhizoctonia patch of cereals in Western Australia. Plant Pathology 34, 175–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathre DM, Cook RJ, Callan NW (1999) From discovery to use: Traversing the world of commercialising biocontrol agents for plant disease control. Plant Disease 83, 972–983.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore KJ, Cook RJ (1984) Increased take-all of wheat with directdrilling in the Pacific Northwest. Phytopathology 74, 1044–1049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson EA, Weller DM. (1994) Use of mixtures of fluorescent pseudomonads to suppress take-all and improve growth of wheat. Phytopathology 84, 940–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pumphrey FV, Wilkins DE, Hane DC, Smiley RW (1987) Influence of tillage and nitrogen fertiliser on Rhizoctonia root rot of directdrilled wheat by short-term chemical fallow. Plant Disease 71, 125–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raaijmakers JM, Weller DM (1998) Natural plant protection by 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol-producing Pseudomonas spp. in take-all decline soils. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 11, 144–152.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Raaijmakers JM, Weller DM, Thomashow LS (1997) Frequency of antibiotic producing Pseudomonas spp. in natural environments. Applied Environmental Microbiology. 63. 881–887.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ramsey NE, Cook RJ, Halsey ME (2000) Prevalence of wheat take-all in the Pacific Northwest. Phytopathology 90: S63 (abstract).

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson GP, Paul EA, Harwood RR (2000) Greenhouse gases in intensive agriculture: contributions of individual gases to the radiative forcing of the atmosphere. Science 298, 1922–1925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roget DK (1995) Decline in root rot (Rhizoctonia solani AG-8) in wheat in a tillage and rotation experiment at Avon, South Australia. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 35, 1009–1013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roget DK, Neate SM, Rovira AD (1996) Effect of sowing point design and tillage practice on the incidence of Rhizoctonia root rot, takeall and cereal cyst nematode in wheat and barley. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 36, 683–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roget DK, Venn NR, Rovira AD (1987) Reduction in Rhizoctonia root rot of direct drilled wheat by short-term chemical fallow. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 27, 425–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothrock CS (1987) Take-all of wheat as affected by tillage and wheatsoybean double cropping. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 19, 307–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rovira AD (1986) Influence of crop rotation and tillage on Rhizoctonia bare patch of wheat. Phytopathology 76, 669–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rovira AD, Venn NR (1985) Effect of rotation and tillage on take-all and Rhizoctonia root rot of wheat. In ‘Ecology and management of soilborne plant diseases’. (Eds CA Parker, AD Rovira, KJ Moore, PT Wong and JF Kollmorgen) pp. 255–258 (American Phytopathological Society: St. Paul, MN)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin JL, Gaines CG, Jensen RA (1984) Glyphosate inhibition of 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate synthase from suspensioncultured cells of Nicotiana silvestris. Plant Physiology 75, 839–845.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schillinger WF, Cook RJ, Papendick RI (1999). Increased cropping intensity for low-precipitation dryland farming using no-till. Agronomy Journal 91, 744–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smiley RW, Ogg Jr AG, Cook RJ (1992) Influence of glyphosate on Rhizoctonia root rot and growth and yield of barley. Plant Disease 76, 937–942.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smiley RW, Patterson L-M (1995) Winter wheat yield and profitability from dividend and vitavax seed treatments. Journal of Production Agriculture 8, 350–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vijayan P, Shockey J, Lévesque CA, Cook RJ, Browse J (1998) A role for jasmonate in pathogen defence of Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95, 7209–7214.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weller DM, Cook RJ (1983) Suppression of take-all of wheat by seed treatments with fluorescent pseudomonads. Phytopathology 73, 463–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller DM, Cook RJ, MacNish G, Bassett EN, Powelson RL, Petersen RR (1986) Rhizoctonia bare patch of small grains favoured by reduced tillage in the Pacific Northwest. Plant Disease 70, 70–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildermuth GB, McNamara RB, Sparks T, Davis M (1999) Sources and types of resistance to crown rot of wheat. In ‘Proceedings of the 9th sssembly of the wheat breeding society of Australia, 27 Sept.-1 Oct. 1999, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia’. (Eds P Williamson, P Banks, J Thompson and A Campbell) pp. 64–65.

  • Wu Y, Cook RJ, Horvath H, Kannangara GG, von Wettstein D (2000) Transformation of barley for resistance to Rhizoctonia root rot with a codon-optimized chitinase gene from Trichoderma harzianum. International Rhizoctonia Symposium, Taichung, Taiwan, 17–20 August 2000.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Endowed Chair in Wheat Research, Washington State University, 99164-6430, Pullman, WA, USA

    R. James Cook

Authors
  1. R. James Cook
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cook, R.J. Management of wheat and barley root diseases in modern farming systems. Australasian Plant Pathology 30, 119–126 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1071/AP01010

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/AP01010

Keywords

Search

Navigation