Fungal infection on winter wheat and spring barley seed material in Lithuania

Abstract

The subject of the study was fungal infection of winter wheat and spring barley grain, intended for seed preparation. The tests involved different varieties grown and using different crop management practices. The tests were conducted during the period 2002-2004. The grain of three seed categories (B, C1 and C2) of 5 winter wheat and 7 spring barley varieties grown on Lithuanian seed production farms was used. Fungal infection on grain was determined according to Bilai (1982) and Satton et al.,(2001) methods in a sterile environment in Petri dishes on Czapek–Dox agar medium. The fungi of Alternaria, Fusarium, Penicillium genera were found to be dominant on winter wheat and spring barley grain. The fungi of Dreschlera genus were additionally established on spring barley grain. The occurrence of these fungi primarily depended on the weather conditions during the grain ripening period and moisture content of stored grain and less depended on crop variety, seed category and grain weight. During the seed preparation process the infestation of seed by pathogenic and saprotrofic pathogens changed inappreciably.