The effect of treating wheat with Ethrel in conjunction with some fungicides on the susceptibility to fungal diseases and on the root zone mycoflora of this plant

Abstract

Wheat cv. Grana grown under field conditions, in the early phase of the first node formation, was sprayed with Ethrel (0.35 ml/m²) and with the fungicides: Sportak 45 EC (0.1 ml/m²) and Bayleton Triple (0.2 g/m²) - separately and in conjunction with Ethrel. It was found that Ethrel reduced the plant's susceptibility to infection by Cercosporella herpotrichoides and by species of the genus Fusarium. The fungicides were more active and also reduced the susceptibility to infection by Erysiphe graminis and Puccinia triticina. The fungistatic effect of Ethrel and Sportak was synergistic only in the case of Cercosporella herpotrichoides. Other interactions between Ethrel and fungicides were not found. Ethrel and fungicides only slightly affected the mycoflora of the root but they completely eliminated the fungi of the genus Mucor from the rhizosphere and reduced the participation of isolates of the genus Alternaria and Cladosporium in the rhizosphere and rhizoplane of wheat. The fungicides were more active than Ethrel. An interaction between Ethrel and fungicides in the reduction of fungi of the genus Fusarium in the rhizosphere was shown.