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

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 DONcontent than the other treatments. In 2012, the DONcontent 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

Head and leaf fungicide deposit on winter wheat, deoxynivalenol content and yield parameters as affected by different nozzle types

In 2014 and 2015, we studied the effect of fungicide spraying with 11 different nozzles on the quality and quantity of head and leaf fungicide deposit, the percentage of Fusarium head blight (FHB) incidence, FHB index, the DON content, yield and grain quality parameters. The best quality and quantity of fungicide deposit on the front and rear head sides was achieved with the TeeJet Turbo FloodJet TF VP2 nozzle (FLOOD) and the Albuz AVI-TWIN 110-03 nozzle (AVI). In comparison with the majority of treatments, the FHB incidence and the FHB index was the highest on the unsprayed control. The FHB index was higher using the Lechler IDK 120-03 nozzle (IDK) than with the other nozzle types. In all the treatments, the DON content in the grain was less than 50 μg/kg. At this very low level of infection this is not surprising. The grain yield was the smallest on the unsprayed control. Better fungicide coverage of wheat heads with the FLOOD and AVI nozzles did not result in a statistically higher yield or better grain quality parameters. Negative correlations were confirmed between yield and variables as DON content, FHB incidence and FHB index and also between falling number and variables as fungicide coverage, FHB incidence and FHB index. Positive correlations were determined between DON content and FHB incidence, between hectolitre weight and variables as spray deposit and coverage and between protein content and variables as spray deposit and coverage