Aschochyta Flourishing in Australia
SYDNEY - Oct 7/10 - SNS -- Growing conditions in some of Australia's key chickpea growing areas are allowing aschochyta blight to flourish in crops, raising doubts about this year's quality and yields but next year's crop.
Some growers are facing their toughest season for ascochyta blight since 1998 the year the disease first emerged as a problem in Australian crops and dry weather is now desperately needed to limit the disease's spread.
In work supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), plant pathologists Kevin Moore, of Industry and Investment NSW (I&I), and Mal Ryley, of Queensland's Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI), are asking growers to think ahead when planning their response to the more immediate challenges of fighting ascochyta blight.
Ascochyta blight is more prevalent in wet seasons, and with its ability to live on in crop residues, the 2011 crop is already at risk of higher than normal infection.
Ascochyta blight initially infects the lower plant canopy and works its way upwards until it infects the seed pods, potentially reducing the crop's saleability for human consumption to that of livestock feed quality.
Rain Allows Disease to Move Up Plant
"If it keeps raining this season it will keep moving up the plant progressively taking each pod, but if it stops raining now and growing areas receive drying winds, then ascochyta blight won't infect as many seed pods this season," Moore said.
Moore said the danger to next season's crop would start this harvest - trash issuing from headers working in paddocks with high ascochyta residue levels could be blown onto neighboring 2010 wheat paddocks.
"If growers plant 2011 chickpeas into 2010 wheat paddocks as part of their crop rotation, they'll be planting into a background of high levels of ascochyta inoculum," he said. "Growers need to be aware of that risk of disease spread and to manage their activities accordingly."
Despite the ability to destroy ascochyta blight by burying infected stubble and trash, growers are still recommended to retain stubble for the purposes of moisture and soil conservation.
However, Moore and Ryley said variety selection and the timing of preventative fungicide sprays would also be vital factors for growers in 2011 as they attempt to limit the disease's impact.
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