Yellow Rust

Yellow Rust

Yellow rust is a major disease in wheat. Typical symptoms comprise small yellow pustules on the leaves. They commonly form in lines along the leaf. Look out for small pockets of affected plants in the spring. In severe cases, the leaves will appear bleached.

Yellow rust overwinters on wheat volunteers. Conditions which favour the disease are cool and humid conditions. The disease may overwinter on crops, but it rarely flares up until the spring and early summer. Yellow rust is specific to wheat, but it will spread onto other varieties of winter and spring wheat. Diversifying wheat varieties is one way to limit the spread from one crop to another.

The most effective way to avoid yellow rust is to grow resistant varieties. The popular variety Robigus is however susceptible to yellow rust. Diversification Schemes can help reduce the spread of the disease. This allows growers to choose a mix of varieties which have different resistance characteristics. As such, when yellow rust attacks on variety, you can choose a variety to sow in neighbouring fields which may be resistant to different races of yellow rust.

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