Can ‘On-Farm’ Seed Priming and Chitosan Seed Treatments Induce Host Defences in Winter Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under Field Conditions?

Abstract

Enhancing host defences through induced resistance, disease tolerance, and/or escape, in combination with current disease management regimes may be a valuable strategy to reduce pesticide use. Since both ‘on-farm’ seed priming (OSP) and chitosan priming (CHP) have been reported to confer varying levels of host defence, this study sought to investigate their potential to deliver disease control as a strategy for sustainable management of foliar pathogens in winter barley. Field experiments were conducted to determine the effects of OSP and CHP at two different field sites using three different cultivars under fungicide/non-fungicide regimes. Overall, no evidence was found to suggest that CHP or OSP can induce effective resistance in temperate field conditions. However, these field trials enabled the identification of candidate traits to deliver disease tolerance (and escape) for the primary and secondary spread of powdery mildew, i.e., large canopies and rapid stem elongation respectively. Thus, these seed treatments may deliver disease tolerance and escape traits, but these benefits are dependent upon successful establishment and vigour first. The integration of seed treatments into sustainable crop protection may be better undertaken with spring crops or in semi-arid agriculture where the added vigour at emergence can help compensate for negative environmental interactions.