Search
Trey Price, LSU AgCenter plant pathologist, is working at the AgCenter Macon Ridge Research Station on rice diseases in north Louisiana and how to manage them.
Price has been growing rice for seed treatment and foliar fungicide efficacy trials since 2014. In 2020, he included row rice in his project, and that enabled him to study the efficacy of products in flooded versus furrow-irrigated conditions.
In 2020, he had 330 plots with six trials at Macon Ridge, which is near Winnsboro. Varieties CL163, Jupiter and Cheniere were grown under flooded and furrow-irrigated conditions. Labeled fungicides tested were Amistar Top; Artisan; Elegia; Flint, which has the same active ingredient as Gem; Quadris; Quilt Xcel; Stratego; Sercadis; and Tilt.
One experimental sheath blight material showed promise in his plots, but Price said there is currently no label for its commercial use in rice.
He said the experimental compound has a similar mode of action as Sercadis, Elegia and Artisan.
“It worked well on sheath blight,” Price said. “The product is labeled in soybeans as Excalia, and I’ve seen it work very well on resistant aerial blight in soybeans.”
Price said his work complements disease research conducted in south Louisiana at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station near Crowley.
“It’s always good to have more locations and different environments,” he said.
Row rice increases the possibility of developing blast disease because the crop is grown in somewhat upland conditions.
He said the varieties Jupiter and CL163 are somewhat popular in north Louisiana, even though they are blast susceptible. Some newer hybrids have moderate resistance, he said.
Strobilurin-containing fungicide applications for blast are best when applied at 50% to 70% panicle emergence, he said. The window for that can be very tight, two to seven days depending on the weather.
“You have to scout carefully, especially if you have a susceptible variety, weather conducive for disease development and upland conditions,” Price said.
Price attempts to induce blast in his test plots by creating situations that will create a favorable environment for the disease.
“In research plots you try to set yourself up to increase the chances of disease development,” he said.
In addition to working on his plots, Price said he also assists the breeding project by maintaining test plots planted by AgCenter breeder Adam Famoso.
Price also worked with Prasanta Subudhi to test six salt-tolerant lines using irrigation water from a well with high salinity levels.
