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Cephalosporium Leaf Stripe
Hymenella cerealis, (Cephalosporium gramineum)
General Description
Cephalosporium leaf stripe is caused by a soilborne fungus. The disease can cause economic losses in winter wheat grown in short wheat rotations where the straw is incorporated into the root zone. Economic losses have been reported on farms in Northumberland, Lothians and Perthshire.
In the UK, wheat yield losses have been estimated by growers to be in the region of 0.5 t/ha, but there is no accurate measure of yield loss by replicated field trials.
In the USA, yield losses of up to 65% have been reported. Wheat is the major economic host, but other cereal hosts include oats, barley, rye, triticale and grass hosts include Bromes.
Spring sown cereals and the resultant trash are also potential carriers, but symptoms are rare. This wide host range causes issues with planning crop rotations for fields where disease levels have built up and there is little data to assist growers make decisions on crop rotations once the disease is established.
Biology
The causal fungus is a slow growing fungus in the soil but it is favoured by wet soil conditions and continuous cereal cropping. The soil-borne fungus enters plants via the roots during winter and early spring.
There is evidence that the fungus can be transmitted by seed, but there is no information on the impact fungicide seed treatments have on the disease at these early stages.
Once inside the plant, the fungus moves up the plant causing blockage at the nodes, distinctive leaf symptoms and stunting. At harvest the fungus returns to the soil in the trash.
Advice
If straw removal is not practical, then deeper ploughing to remove the straw from the root zone may help. There is little data on how long the fungus can survive in the trash and this limits the knowledge required to give advice on the length of cereal breaks required following an outbreak.
In the USA there are indications of varietal differences, but there is insufficient information on the susceptibility of UK varieties.
Removing wheat trash and maintaining a rotation with non hosts is the best method to reduce the disease. Continual wheat growers are reluctant to take this action since it breaks the take-all decline, leading to increase in take-all when wheat is re-sown. In the USA, take-all fungus and Cephalosporium leaf stripe can compete with each other in a field and over a five year period, yield losses ranged between 26-65% for Cephalosporium and 52-91% for take-all (Bockus et al. 1994).
In the USA, a break from cereals for 2 years would be recommended where the disease has increased to a level to cause economic concern. Where this is not possible, a break using a spring cereal will help to reduce the disease, but it can take longer. In the USA, some wheat varieties show tolerance but none are resistant. There is no data regarding tolerance in European varieties. In the UK, this disease occurs even under traditional cultivations, but it has become a major problem on farms sowing in wheat under reduced tillage, or where straw is incorporated on close crop rotations.