The incidence and severity of eyespot on winter wheat variety Hereward grown as a monocrop and as a bicrop with white clover

Abstract EN

In a three-year field trial, the level of eyespot on cv.

Hereward winter wheat was recorded from cereal monocrops and cereal-clover bicrops receiving standard farming practice and reduced levels of input.

Disease incidence (٢٠٢ years one, two and three) and severity (years two and three only), increased with each season m all treatments.

In the third wheat crop the area under the disease progress curve (AUD?C) for disease incidence (mean of all treatments) was 3.30 t؛mes higher than that measured for the first wheat crop.

The average AUDPC for disease severity in year three was ١ .78 t؛mes greater than that for year two.

In year three the eyespot incidence AUDPC for bicrops was 1.12 times greater than in monocrops.

Disease severity AUDPC in year three was 1.45 times greater in bicrops than in monocrops.

Por all treatments there was a significant correlation between AUDPC and the rate of disease increase.

The results are discussed ln terms of those factors that are likely to affect eyespot levels within bicrops, especially microclimate changes, spore production on crop residues, and spore dispersal by ram-splash.