07/18/05 Stripe rust, why here, why now?

Idaho growers knew it was probably only a matter of time before they saw stripe rust in their wheat fields. After all the plant disease is established in Washington and Oregon, California too. The rust was found in Power County this year. What surprised Ed Souza of the University of Idaho was the rapid change because some wheat varieties thought to be resistant to stripe rust were, in fact, not resistant. SOUZA "There are a couple of things that I do think are contributing to it. The warmer season that we've had recently means that there are more cycles that of reproduction that the rust spores go through and so once a resistance appears through a mutation in the rust it has a lot of opportunity to increase quickly and so we may have not just races developing new each year but multiple generations of new races appearing within a year." Souza says there are still some wheat varieties that have held up and do remain resistant. SOUZA "Hard spring wheat's that are looking very good still are varieties like Jefferson, our new release Alturas which is a soft white. Up in northern Idaho the new release out of Washington State for spring wheat Louise seems to be holding its adult plant resistance." . Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott