Examining the latent period of Septoria tritici blotch in a field trial of winter wheat

Abstract

The wheat cultivar Consort was artificially inoculated with Septoria tritici in an experiment to determine the latent period of the pathogen in New Zealand Three individual leaf layers (leaf three leaf two or the flag leaf) were inoculated over three sowing dates to provide a range of different environmental conditions following inoculation The mean latent period was 21 to 27 days (291372C days) The length of the latent period increased slightly with delays in sowing date The implications for producing a simple forecasting system to assist farmers with timing of fungicide applications are discussed