Management of stripe rust of wheat through fungicides and application timing

The present study was planned to evaluate fungicides and their optimum timing for foliar application for the management of wheat stripe rust or yellow rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Fungicides were applied to the crop at the initiation of disease traces on lower leaves. The analysis of variance of data over the years of experimentation showed that all the fungicides significantly reduced the disease as compared to the control. Among the five fungicides, propiconazole, tebuconazole and triadimefon were recorded with the lowest level of stripe rust. Individually, two sprays of propiconazole @ 0.1% was the best treatment as its application resulted in only 6.5 per cent yellow rust severity and provided 91.5 per cent disease control. In terms of disease severity and area under disease progress curve values, triazole (propiconazole, tebuconazole and triadimefon) products gave > 75% control of the disease and enhanced the crop yield. Efficacy of single and two sprays of triazole fungicides in relation to crop growth stages was evaluated. The treatment of two sprays of propiconazole at crop growth stages GS32 and GS39 was found the best with lowest yellow rust severity (2.5 %), lowest AUDPC values (33.7) and higher yields (36.7 q/ha).