By Blake Jackson
Managing plant diseases can be particularly difficult for organic grain producers because research and field-based guidance specific to organic production systems remain limited.
Without access to conventional fungicides, organic growers depend heavily on crop rotation, field management, scouting, and selecting varieties with stronger disease resistance, according to Penn State Extension.
The OROWS organic small grains project at Penn State is helping address this information gap by evaluating disease development across different grain varieties under organic production conditions.
The project gives researchers an opportunity to compare disease responses side by side and provide growers with information that can support practical management decisions.
Dr. Adriana Murillo-Williams, who oversees disease evaluations for the project, specializes in plant pathology. Her work examines how diseases develop among different small grain varieties and how farming practices can influence disease pressure.
"Pennsylvania organic farmers need more reliable information about small grain disease susceptibility," Murillo-Williams said.
Disease management begins with careful scouting. Identifying the symptoms and determining which pathogen is responsible can help farmers understand how a disease entered a field and how it may persist.
For example, some pathogens can arrive from nearby fields, while others survive in crop residue from previous seasons. Understanding the source can help growers determine whether practices such as changing crop rotations could reduce future disease pressure.
Farmers also need to evaluate disease severity and consider how their selected varieties respond. Resistant varieties can limit infection, while tolerant varieties may become infected but continue growing and producing acceptable yields.
Disease concerns are not limited to leaves. Fusarium head blight, commonly known as head scab, can significantly affect wheat, barley, oats, and rye.
The disease can reduce yield and test weight while producing shriveled kernels that may contain deoxynivalenol, or DON, a mycotoxin that can result in price discounts or rejected grain when concentrations exceed accepted limits.
Once affected grain is identified, growers can make adjustments during harvest. Increasing or modifying the combine fan setting can help remove lighter, damaged kernels and reduce some of the contaminated material leaving the combine.
Murillo-Williams' research is focused on providing clearer answers about variety performance. By monitoring disease responses over multiple seasons and under different cultural practices, the OROWS project is building practical information about which varieties offer resistance or tolerance and how management practices influence disease severity.
For organic grain growers, this accumulating field-level knowledge can provide a useful foundation for making disease-management decisions and selecting varieties suited to their production conditions.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-ianchrisgraham
Categories: Pennsylvania, Crops, Wheat