Lower disease pressure in the east, but still a need for broad-spectrum activity

On a warm and sunny day in the East Anglian Fens NIAB senior crop protection and IPM specialist Dr Aoife O’ Driscoll is playing ‘disease bingo’ in the winter wheat plots at Bayer’s demonstration site at The Walpoles in Norfolk. 

On this occasion a full house eludes her, and while she does find traces of mildew and brown rust, overall disease levels are low as she dips into plots of Champion, LG Redwald, Bamford, KWS Extase, RGT Skyfall and Crusoe. 

Drilled late, on 8 November, the plots here are less advanced than those at the Herefordshire and Yorkshire sites, with most not yet at GS30. 

Surrounding them, the farm’s commercial crop of LG Beowulf, drilled a month earlier is well tillered, much taller and is carrying a little more disease, with Septoria present in the base. 

“The risk for these crops is rust coming in at T1, and rain, so that any Septoria in the base of the canopy splashes up onto the flag leaf,” says Aoife. 

“If you are in a situation, such as we are here, where Septoria probably won’t be a major problem this year, you need to think about what can give you good broad-spectrum control, and that's where isoflucypram comes in, because it gives you good all-around control of a lot of different diseases.” 

Pictured: Aoife O'Driscoll and Darren Adkins

Reflecting on Aoife’s observations in the plots, Bayer’s Darren Adkins, who is the site manager at The Walpoles, sums up his three top tips for disease control in winter wheat ahead of T1: 

“Number one, know your varieties and their disease susceptibilities,” he says.  

“Two, know your timings - T1 needs to go on at leaf 3 nearly emerged or fully emerged; it’s important to get that that leaf protected. 

‘Three, choose a product that's got broad spectrum activity across a lot of diseases. 

“At the T1 timing, we need to cover quite a few different diseases and having products such as Ascra® Xpro®, or Plaxium® or Vimoy®, which are broad spectrum across the disease range is really useful.  

“You can narrow down the selectivity of your fungicide programme as you get nearer to T2, when you know what the weather and disease pattern is going to be like for the season,” concludes Darren. 

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Ascra® Xpro® contains bixafen, fluopyram and prothioconazole. Plaxium® contains fluopyram, isoflucypram and prothioconazole. Vimoy® contains isoflucypram.  Ascra, Plaxium, Vimoy and Xpro are registered trademarks of Bayer. All other brand names used are Trademarks of other manufacturers in which proprietary rights may exist. Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. Pay attention to the risk indications and follow the safety precautions on the label. For further information, including contact details, visit www.cropscience.bayer.co.uk or call 0808 1969522. © Bayer CropScience Limited 2025