Crop Watch 31 July 2024

Send us your pulse, canola and cereal crop disease samples

SARDI is seeking diseased samples from this year's commercial pulse, canola, barley and oat crops. The samples will assist research scientists Tara Garrard, Mohsen Khani and Nicole Thompson with monitoring the nature and extent of disease in 2024.

Grain growers and advisers are being asked to help in providing samples of:

• ascochyta blight in lentil, faba bean and chickpea
• Sclerotinia in pulse and canola crops
• Net and spot form net blotch in barley
• Septoria in oats
• suspected virus samples.

These samples will contribute to GRDC project investments that screen for any changes in ascochyta blight disease resistance of current cultivars, to monitor pathogen population changes and to also understand how serious a disease sclerotinia is for the southern pulse industry.

The barley disease samples will contribute to a national GRDC survey pathotyping key barley foliar pathogens to monitor pathogen population changes and to screen for any disease resistance changes.

Oat Septoria samples will contribute to a GRDC project identifying novel sources of oat Septoria resistance and understanding the virulence of the pathogen.

Virus samples will contribute to a GRDC project investigating the distribution of grains viruses in Australia.

For net and spot form net blotch in barley, and Septoria in oats, please contact:

Tara Garrard
Phone: (08) 8429 2247
Email: tara.garrard@sa.gov.au

For virus samples in any grains crops, please contact:

Nicole Thompson
Phone: (08) 8429 0915
Email: nicole.thompson@sa.gov.au

For ascochyta and sclerotinia in pulses and canola, collection kits with return envelopes will be provided to growers and advisers willing to provide samples; please contact:

Mohsen Khani
Phone: (08) 8429 2285
Email: mohsen.khani@sa.gov.au

New technology monitoring airborne foliar pathogens

New AgTech platforms have been deployed in the Mid North and South East grain growing districts to monitor for airborne foliar pathogens. A GRDC funded initiative has co-located SARDI's new Plant Health Surveillance Sentinel units with Bioscout SporeScout devices to demonstrate technology capabilities in surveillance and diagnostics. Deployment is supported by local growers and advisors.

Two networks of Bioscout SporeScout devices (10 in each district) will offer their near real-time data on the presence and concentration of 5 major airborne fungal pathogens threatening grain crops. SARDI Sentinel units at Riverton and Frances will demonstrate DNA detection systems on the abundance of 10 major foliar pathogens reported fortnightly.

Similar networks and reporting mechanisms are also deployed in WA and NSW to demonstrate the technology in each GRDC region.

Data from these 2 surveillance systems are freely available to growers during the life of this 2-year GRDC funded initiative.

• Bioscout SporeScout network –  register your interest and you'll receive an email to access the dashboard
• SARDI Plant Health Surveillance system – select the Sentinel deployment of interest.

We encourage growers and agronomists to access this data.

Please contact us with any comments or questions:

• Rohan Kimber – SARDI Plant Health and Diagnostics
  Email: rohan.kimber@sa.gov.au
• Michelle Demers – Bioscout
  Email: michelle@bioscout.com.au
• Megan Deveson – Bioscout
  Email: megan@bioscout.com.au

Subscribe