Location: Crop Production and Protection
Project Number: 0500-00102-001-048-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2024
End Date: May 31, 2025
Objective:
Our overall goal is to assemble historic data on stripe rust epidemics in the PNW and use it in conjunction with contemporary weather, pathogen inoculum density, and disease severity data to develop models with greater ability to predict severity of stripe rust. These models will then be used to develop decision support tools that will enable growers to make more informed management decisions. The following three objectives will be completed to achieve this goal: 1) Develop a database of historical stripe rust epidemics in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) that will serve as a foundation for new models; 2) Quantify the relationships between pathogen inoculum, disease development, and weather conditions in commercial fields; and 3) Determine accuracy of Burkard and roto-rod spore samplers for inoculum collection of important foliar diseases in eastern Washington.
Approach:
To achieve objective 1, seasonal data on stripe rust severity for the long-term control winter wheat and spring wheat varieties will be extracted from historical records and summarized. These data will be used as the dependent variable in model development. To achieve objective 2, a network of spore traps will be established at four epidemiologically relevant sites in eastern WA to quantify inoculum density of P. striiformis. Each site will be co-located with the university, which establishes a series of uniform field trials at 20+ locations in commercial wheat fields in eastern WA. Each variety testing location is within 1 mile of a university weather station from which relevant weather data will be collected throughout the season. Weather data will also be obtained from a cooperator. Stripe rust severity for a set of standard varieties will be collected from observation nurseries located in Washington as part of the USDA Stripe Rust research program. To achieve objective 3, two multi-vial cyclone samplers and two roto-rod samplers will be installed at each location to collect samples for determination of P. striiformis inoculum density to compare samplers. Duplicate samplers will be installed to determine variability in inoculum collection for each sampler type and compare sampler types with each other. Trap plants of a cultivar highly susceptible to stripe rust will also be installed at each sample location to provide a biological indicator of stripe rust potential.
