Publication Date

9-2024

Series Number

DPIRD-26

Publisher

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

City

Perth

Abstract

Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) is a foliar disease that can significantly reduce wheat yields if it occurs in early spring and is not controlled. Risk factors, management strategies (including variety choices and foliar fungicides), and yield loss from different varieties are discussed here.

In Western Australia, stem rust typically causes losses of 10 to 50% in wheat, but this can increase to 90% when it occurs in early spring and is not controlled.

Stem rust affects wheat and triticale, but barley can also be a host during summer months.Stem rust produces large, reddish-brown spore masses on both sides of the leaf, on leaf sheaths, stems, and outside of heads. The pustules have tattered edges.

Stem rust requires living plants on which to grow and reproduce. To infect crops during the season, it must survive summer by infecting volunteer cereals or grass hosts, known as the ‘green bridge’.

Other rusts that infect wheat in WA are stripe rust and leaf rust, but these do not occur on stems. For more information on these rusts, see the page, Managing stripe rust and leaf rust in wheat in Western Australia.

Number of Pages

6

Keywords

Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici), Foliar disease, Wheat, Crop damage, Crop yield losses, Foliar fungicides, Crop diseases

Disciplines

Agribusiness | Agricultural Economics | Agricultural Education | Agricultural Science | Agronomy and Crop Sciences | Biosecurity | Fungi | Plant Biology | Plant Pathology

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