Small Grains Disease and Pest Report for 06/01/21

This is the first of the biweekly small grains disease and pest reports of the 2021 growing season.  

The cool and (very) dry spring have made that things have been relatively quiet up to this point.  The detection of the English grain aphids in SW Minnesota in the second week of May being the one exception.  Aphids have since moved further north with aphids now being found in west-central Minnesota and the southern Red River Valley. Our scouts also found grasshoppers in the same part of the state in their first full week of scouting last week. 

Scout your rye and winter wheat fields for aphids and grasshoppers.  The thresholds to control aphids and grasshoppers in winter wheat (and rye) can be found here.

The dry and cool conditions have also meant that very little if any leaf diseases can be found in either spring or winter wheat.  The first winter wheat fields will likely be heading this week and reach anthesis by the weekend.  The recent rains in the southeastern part of the state, combined with the warming weather have meant that the risk for FHB has started to trend upward since last Friday in that part of the State.  I expect the risk to remain medium to high for wheat varieties that are either susceptible or very susceptible to Fusarium Head Blight.  I encourage you to scout the fields now to determine the exact growth stage of the wheat and be ready to apply a fungicide at Feekes 10.51. The products labeled for use in winter wheat can be found here.