Now is the time to monitor wheat crops for signs of take-all. Information on this season’s incidence is key to formulating a strategy to reduce its impact in following crops.

The 2017-18 season has been mixed in terms of take-all risk factors which can make disease pressure hard to predict.

Geoffrey Bastard, technical specialist for Certis said: “The waterlogged soils are a prime breeding ground for the take-all pathogen and combined with mildew infection in the autumn, may have hindered rooting and left plants susceptible to the disease.”

Unlike other cereal diseases, take-all is always in the background posing a risk to yield. Once temperatures rise the disease can spread quickly.

Mr Bastard said: “Symptoms are likely to appear imminently, particularly in min-till situations, where crop debris left on the surface could host traces of the pathogen.”

Although there is little that can be done in-season for crops showing take-all symptoms, growers can assess disease pressure to identify the risk for second cereal crops drilled in the upcoming autumn.

Variety choice, later drilling and compaction free soils with good drainage can all form part of a robust control programme for take-all in second cereals.

An important part of any control programme is a take-all active seed treatment which creates a protective zone in the soil to protect the roots against the pathogen.

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Take-all – what is it and where are the risks?

• Take-all is a soil-borne fungus which attacks the roots of host plant

• It commonly affects second and third wheats, winter barley following a cereal and first wheat after fallow or a spring cereal

• Infection initially appears in distinct patches of stunted plants with blackened roots

• At harvest plants have “bleached” ears, commonly known as whiteheads, containing pinched or no grains

• It can thrive in all soils, but lighter and/or alkaline are highest risk

• Symptoms are exacerbated by poor nutrition, drainage or soil pH

• Cereal volunteers and grassweeds can bridge the disease over into following cereals

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Take-all management tips for 2018

• Assess take-all levels in cereal crops now to identify next season’s risk

• Reduce its impact with an integrated management plan

• Healthy soils, twinned with good establishment and nutrition is key

• A seed treatment can help protect yield in second and third cereal crops