I have seen many of partial infected spikes of barley with smut disease on the field, as i know smut diseases is systematic infected the plant, is the any strategist diffidence in the plant can stop the pathogen and get the partial infection?
Well, a number of factors (worthy of investigation) could be involved in what you have seen manifested, might depend on whether the smut is Covered or Loose smut (Barley might to some extent develop resistance more to covered smut than the loose form); history of planted seeds (are they resistant seeds, treated or modified in any way?); Stage of pathogen incubation in the plant/disease manifestation period). So, on general term, a number of factors could be responsible for the reaction of plants to a pathogen; i'd suggest further investigations to retrieve more facts. Good Luck!
According to Jones 1997 (DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3059.1997.d01-73.x) foliar sprays with systemic fungicide prior to heading can result in partially smutted heads. Perhaps this field was sprayed for another barley disease such as rust. I suppose the barley seed was not treated with fungicide.
You could save the seed from partially smutted heads. Treat subsets of the seeds: control (nontreated), surface sterilized (ss), treat with contact and/systemic fungicide(s). Collect seed from non-smutted heads and treat identically.
Hi Stephen: This barley nursery is for FHB screening, this nursery is never treated with any kind of fungicide.
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