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The effects of mixing barley cultivars on incidence of powdery mildew ( Erysighe graminis ) and on yield in Northern Ireland
Author(s) -
WHITE ETHEL M.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1982.tb00856.x
Subject(s) - powdery mildew , biology , cultivar , mildew , monoculture , blumeria graminis , agronomy , sowing , erysiphe graminis , population , yield (engineering) , horticulture , poaceae , plant disease resistance , hordeum vulgare , gene , biochemistry , materials science , demography , sociology , metallurgy
SUMMARY Sowing mixtures of cereal cultivars has been advocated as a strategy to reduce yield loss resulting from disease in the short term and to delay adaptive changes amongst the races in the pathogen population in the long term. Six spring barley cultivars, Midas, Athos, Sundance, Mazurka, Goldmarker and Golden Promise, and seven selected paired mixtures of these, combined according to the compatibility of their resistance genes, were grown in field experiments during 3 yr. Where natural infection by powdery mildew ( Erysiphe graminis ) was severe, as in 1980, levels of infection in the mixtures were less than the mean of the components in monoculture. Yields were generally increased by combining cultivars; mixtures of Athos with Midas and with Mazurka gave yields over 8% higher than the mean yields of their components but these apparent synergistic effects could not be associated with reductions in levels of mildew infection.