Managing crop losses from foliar diseases with fungicides, rotation, and tillage in the Saskatchewan Parkland

The effects of three tillage systems, three crop rotations, and fungicide applications were evaluated on diseases of barley, wheat, canola and pea at Melfort, SK, from 1994 to 1998. During these years, reduced tillage did not increase crop losses due to diseases. Four-year rotations with higher proportions of broad-leaved crops and more crop diversity (i.e., canola, pea, flax, and barley) had higher yields than rotations with fewer broad-leaved crops and less crop diversity (i.e., canola, wheat, barley, and barley). However, these rotations did not influence the severity of septoria leaf blotch of wheat, net blotch of barley, the incidence of sclerotinia stem rot and blackleg of canola, or the severity of mycosphaerella blight of pea. Interplot interference may have been a factor influencing some diseases in plots, as the size was only 270 m(2). Fungicide application of propiconazole on Harrington barley decreased foliar disease severity and increased yield by 23%, seed weight by 13%, and kernel plumpness by 25%. Application of azoxystrobin decreased foliar disease and increased pea yield 29% and seed weight by 7% for the pea cultivars Express and Highlight. Foliar disease severity on AC Taber wheat was reduced by application of propiconazole in 2 of 4 yr, but the yield response was very inconsistent. Similarly, AC Excel canola had inconsistent disease and yield response to applications of propiconazole and benomyl, but levels of sclerotinia stem rot and blackleg were very low in all years. These results indicate that reduced tillage will not result in significantly higher levels of disease that require fungicide inputs to maintain yield. Moving from cereal-based rotations to more diverse, broad-leaved based rotations improves the yield of cereals. However, regardless of tillage or rotation, higher yields may be obtained in barley and pea with fungicides for control of leaf spot disease in susceptible cultivars.