Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) seed yield response to fungicides a summary of 12 years of field research

Abstract

A summary of seed yield data from 19 fungicide trials in perennial and hybrid ryegrass (Lolium spp) seed crops conducted over a 12 year period is presented Seed yields from the best fungicide treatments were increased on average by 25 in forage ryegrass (390 kg/ha) and 42 in turf ryegrass (580 kg/ha) Seed yield increases were associated with the control of stem rust and/or maintaining green leaf area during seed fill In turf ryegrass (susceptible to stem rust) delaying the first fungicide application until stem rust appeared resulted in seed yields that were not different (P>005) from the untreated experimental controls whereas early fungicide applications from the beginning of reproductive development increased seed yield by between 36 and 42 Fungicide mixes of a triazole plus a strobilurin usually gave higher seed yields than using either fungicide type alone