Resistance of several wheat varieties grown at the medium altitude of East Lombok to leaf blight disease

Abstract

Abstract Wheat is a subtropical plant that can only be cultivated in tropical highlands of Indonesia at an altitude of >800 m above sea level. When planted at a lower altitude, the wheat need to adapt to different climate conditions (the adaption getting a lot harder due to climate change issues), especially to the disease they will face in warmer conditions. The research aimed to determine the resistance of several wheat varieties grown at medium altitude to leaf blight disease had been conducted in East Lombok, Indonesia. The research applied a Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) with 12 wheat varieties, namely: Nias, Dewata, Axe, Gladius, Correll, Cobra, Espada, Scout, Mace, Sunstate, Janz, and Westonia. The incidence of natural infection of Bipolaris sorokiniana, the causal agent of leaf blight disease of wheat, was observed weekly. The wheat yield was also measured after harvest. The results showed that the highest average percentage of disease incidence (35.97%) was found in the Axe variety which is categorized as susceptible to leaf blight disease, while the lowest (11.37%) was found in the Janz variety which is categorized as resistant variety. The highest yield of wheat (3.16 ton/ha) was found in the Nias variety with the disease incidence of 13.21%, and the lowest (0.68 ton/ha) was found in the Cobra variety with the disease incidence of 20.96%.