SUMMARY Serial designs, balanced for effects of neighbours, were used in 1975–1977 to investigate interactions between plots of spring barley given different treatments for the control of powdery mildew (Erysiphe graminis DC. f. sp. hordei Mérat). Differences in amounts of disease, between similarly treated plots, could be related largely to the treatments applied to the neighbouring plots and to wind directions. Amounts of disease in plots were usually increased if the upwind neighbour was untreated but untreated plots themselves were also affected by neighbours, having least disease where the upwind neighbour was sprayed early. Differences in mildew due to treatment were reflected in grain yield. Yields also provided evidence of interactions between plots. Interference, as well as altering the average response to treatments, can also contribute to variability in experiment results and lead to substantial losses in efficiency. The yields in 1975 and 1976 provided strong evidence of profiles of fertility. In the analyses, adjustment by covariates, employed to allow for these profiles, gave substantial net gains in accuracy.

Effects of regular treatments with the fungicides carbendazim and prochloraz applied to whole plots divided into subplots with different initial population mixtures of carbendazim-sensitive or carbendazim-resistant Tapesia yallundae or T. acuformis were studied in successive crops of winter wheat from 1984 / 85 to 1999 / 2000. In unsprayed and carbendazimsprayed whole plots, a stable coexistence of about 50% each of T. yallundae and T. acuformis developed within five seasons, but in whole plots sprayed with prochloraz or prochloraz plus carbendazim, the proportion of T. acuformis increased to > 80%. A discrete time difference equation model was derived from knowledge of the biology of eyespot and competition theory to describe the population changes. The model was fitted to the data from treatments where coexistence occurred [subplots in unsprayed (1985 -92) and carbendazim-sprayed (1985 -89) whole plots], using nonlinear least squares regression. The optimized value of the resource overlap coefficient was small, suggesting niche differences between the two species. Populations were nearly 100% carbendazim-resistant in carbendazim-sprayed whole plots by July 1985 (one season) and in whole plots sprayed with prochloraz plus carbendazim by July 1986 (two seasons). In prochloraz-sprayed whole plots, the proportion of carbendazim-resistant isolates decreased more rapidly than in unsprayed whole plots in the 1980s, but by July 1992 a shift in populations in unsprayed and prochloraz-sprayed whole plots towards predominantly carbendazim-resistant strains had occurred.

Disposal methods for straw from continuous winter wheat were tested on two soil types, a flinty silty clay loam and a sandy loam, over 7 years . The methods tested were burnt or chopped straw in full factorial combination with four cultivation methods (tined to 10 cm, tined to 10 cm then to 20 cm; ploughed to 20 cm; tined to 10 cm then ploughed to 20 cm). Measurements were taken to determine the effects on crop establishment and growth, pest and disease incidence, and the consequent effects on yield. Another experiment (1985-91) on the flinty silty clay loam site, investigated the interactions between straw treatments (burnt, baled or chopped in plots that were all shallow cultivated to 10 cm) and five other factors; namely, time of cultivation, insecticides, molluscicides, fungicides and autumn nitrogen. All the straw x cultivation systems allowed satisfactory crops to be established but repeated incorporation of straw using shallow, non-inversion cultivations resulted in very severe grass-weed problems. Early crop growth, as measured by aboveground dry matter production, was frequently decreased by straw residues, but the effect rarely persisted beyond anthesis. Pests were not a problem and their numbers were not greatly affected either by straw or cultivation treatments, apart from yellow cereal fly which, especially on the heavier soil, was decreased by treatments which left much straw debris on the soil surface. Incorporating straw also caused no serious increases in the incidence of diseases. Indeed, averaged over all sites and years, eyespot and sharp eyespot were both slightly but significantly less severe where straw was incorporated than where it was burnt. Eyespot, and even more consistently sharp eyespot, were often more severe after ploughing than after shallow, non-inversion cultivations. Effects on take-all were complex but straw residues had much smaller effects than cultivations. Initially the disease increased most rapidly in the shallow cultivated plots but these also tended to go into the decline phase more quickly so that in the fourth year (fifth cereal crop) take-all was greater in the ploughed than in the shallow cultivated plots. On average, yields did not differ greatly with straw or cultivation systems, although there were clear effects of take-all in those years when the disease was most severe. In the last 2 years, yields were limited by the presence of grass weeds in the plots testing chopped straw incorporated by tining to 10 cm.

A seed treatment containing fluquinconazole as the only active ingredient was tested in sequences of up to six consecutive crops of winter wheat. It was applied or not applied in each year, and was tested in all possible combinations with treatments applied in previous years. Take-all was controlled effectively, and grain yield usually increased, when the disease intensity was moderate or severe in non-treated crops, but control of the most severe take-all did not result in acceptable yields or grain quality. Treatment of a first wheat or second wheat with little take-all did not usually benefit the subsequent crop. Non-treatment of a crop grown after a treated, diseased crop usually resulted in a marked increase in disease, indicating that treatment had delayed progress of the epidemic. Take-all was controlled by treatment of a crop grown after a treated, diseased crop but the amount of control and of increased yield was often less than that in a treated crop grown after a non-treated crop in the same crop sequence. Similar effects of seed treatment were apparent in crops grown on a site with take-all decline. The alternative fungicide, silthiofam, applied as a seed treatment in the later years of some experiments, was usually as effective as fluquinconazole. From these experiments, it is recommended that: a) fluquinconazole seed treatment should be applied to a second or third wheat crop, grown after a first wheat crop that was managed to avoid rapid take-all development (e.g. by avoiding very early sowing); b) a break crop should follow the treated crop; c) the seed treatment should not normally be used in longer sequences of wheat or on take-all decline soil unless it is planned to follow the treated crop with a non-cereal break.

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