Effect of spraying speed on head coverage of winter wheat with fungicide, occurrence of Fusarium head blight and deoxynivalenol, yield and grain quality

Abstract

The effect of spraying speed (5, 8.5 or 12 km/h) on deposition quality of fungicide on a winter wheat head, yield, grain quality, occurrence of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and deoxynivalenol (DON) content in grains was investigated in 2011 and 2012. Asymmetric double flat fan air-injector nozzles were used in the trial at a spraying pressure of 5.0 bars. A prothiconazole + tebuconazole fungicide mixture was used for spraying. An increase of spraying speed significantly lowered coverage values at the front and rear parts of a wheat head. At all three spraying speeds, the rear part of a wheat head reached a better coverage value. The effect of spraying speed was significant in 2011, when the 5 km/h spraying speed generated a significantly higher grain yield and a significantly higher thousand-grain weight in comparison with the other treatments. In both trial years, the lowest grain yield occurred on the unsprayed control. In 2011 and 2012, the latter also reached the lowest hectolitre weight and thousand-grain weight. In both trial years, the unsprayed control had a significantly higher DON content than the other treatments. In 2012, the DON content on the unsprayed control exceeded the allowed maximum level. The spraying speed did not affect the DON content in the grains. The effect of spraying speed was also noted in the FHB incidence. A significantly lower FHB incidence occurred at the 5 and 8.5 km/h spraying speeds.

Identification of Novel Quantitative Trait Loci Linked to Crown Rot Resistance in Spring Wheat

“…Varying levels of success have been achieved using fungicides to control this disease. A recent study also investigated the effect of spraying speed (5, 8.5 or 12 km/h) on the occurrence of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and deoxynivalenol (DON) content in grains [ 36 ]. The spraying speed did not affect the DON content in the grains, although a significantly lower FHB incidence occurred at the 5 and 8.5 km/h spraying speeds.…”

Effect of in‐canopy foliar fungicide applications in corn on spray coverage

“…Fine droplet sizes (40–100 μm) have been shown to provide increased spray coverage over larger droplet sizes (Bateman et al., 2019) in corn systems using herbicides (Feng et al., 2003) and provide increased spray deposition in other crops such as wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.; Halley et al., 2008). In other cropping systems such as wheat, faster sprayer speeds reduced coverage (Sreš et al., 2015; White et al., 2022) and using dual‐fan or turbo nozzles resulted in better deposition on vertically oriented wheat heads (Lehoczki‐Krsjak et al., 2015). While the orientation of the 360 Undercover nozzles (Figure 1) should alleviate issues with nozzle selection and orientation, different nozzle types or patterns were not tested in this study and is an avenue of future investigation.…”