When to Apply a Wheat Fungicide

FBN Network

Apr 18, 2024

Hit by El Niño this year, the southern United States has been experiencing “wetter than usual weather patterns and increased flooding,” as we reported in our free report “How Will El Niño Impact U.S. Farmers This Year?” In addition to the challenges of preparing seed beds and planting, excessive rainfall can also fuel disease. 

As a result, there has been an increase in wheat leaf rust and stripe rust presence in the South. FBN® agronomists expect it to move northward.

Given these conditions, this could be the right time to apply fungicide to the wheat in your farm to protect your yield. 

In this post, we’ll cover:

  • How Fungicides Support a Healthy Wheat Crop

  • 3 Classes of Fungicide

  • When to Apply Fungicide Treatment in Wheat

How Fungicides Support a Healthy Wheat Crop

Fungicides are a type of pesticide that can bring a substantial benefit to your wheat crop by:

  • Improving plant health

  • Increasing stability

  • Protecting yield 

Fungicides do their best work in fighting the yield-limiting effects of diseases such as stripe rust, head scab, and powdery mildew — all diseases that can wreak havoc on a crop.


Visit our new pest page on stripe rust to learn: how to identify stripe rust, timing of its emergence, and how to manage this fungal disease.


3 Classes of Fungicide

A fungicide application helps protect further damage to the plant and as a result can greatly impact yield. 

There are many types of wheat and small grain fungicides. Those fungicides that contain a strobilurin, such as azoxystrobin (Group 11), or a triazole, such as triticonazole (Group 3), are common choices for wheat growers. A combination of both Group 11 and Group 3 fungicides are commonly used as well.

Fungicides can be broken down into three main use cases: preventative, curative, and combination. 

1. Preventative Fungicides

Preventative fungicides protect wheat from diseases before they are present in the field. These include fungicides with strobilurin as the primary active ingredient, such as:

Products that contain strobilurin should not be applied past anthesis as it can increase the DON level of grain.  

2. Curative Fungicides

Curative fungicides stop the spread of disease after it has infected the plant. These include those with triazoles as the active ingredient, such as:

3. Combination Fungicides

Combination fungicides are a mix of both preventative and curative fungicides and can protect plants from disease, while stopping the spread of disease already in the plant. These include products such as:

When to Apply Fungicide Treatment in Wheat

As indicated above, there are a variety of fungicide options from flag leaf to flowering stage of development. Always scout early for leaf diseases and be prepared to take action as needed to prevent yield loss.

If the conditions are right for disease pressure, disease can pop up at any time. Pay close attention to conditions should you need to apply a preventative fungicide in your fields. Once disease pressure and damage is already visible within a field, it will be too late to make a preventative application.

You should, however, wait for the flag leaf if disease pressure is low. 

Applying Fungicide During Flag Leaf Stage 

Wheat is most susceptible to leaf rust and stripe rust during the flag leaf stage, when the plant has fully emerged and the topmost leaf is developed. 

If you think you’ll only have one opportunity to apply fungicide to your crop, applying at flag leaf emergence will help you achieve your highest ROI potential. The flag leaf is the leaf driving the photosynthesis that supports head and grain development, so you’ll want to put your biggest effort into protecting it.


Visit our new pest page on leaf rust to learn: how to identify leaf rust, timing of its emergence, and how to manage this fungal disease.


Applying Fungicide During Flowering Stage 

Prothio(125.00) + Teb(125.00) Value Pick is an excellent option to apply after flowering.  One of the major advantages of Prothio + Teb is the product is both a contact and systemic fungicide so as result the product has great curative and preventative properties.

Get Answers to Your Fungicide Questions

FBN developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) ag advisor, named Norm, to help answer your questions. This powerful tool was trained with FBN’s Analytics, FBN blogs, product labels, the USDA, Seed Finder, and more information sources.

Ask Norm your question here.

FBN also offers on-demand agronomy support. If you have a question about a product, a recently placed order, or our services, there are a variety of ways you can reach us:

  • Call us: 1-844-200-3276

  • Send us a text message: 1-844-200-3276

  • Email us: support@farmersbusinessnetwork.com

Our hours are Monday through Friday from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm CST. If contacted outside of these hours, we’ll get back to you the following business day.

Buy Fungicide from FBN

Get the fungicides you need to help protect your wheat crop against rust and other pressures this season from FBN.

In addition to fungicides, FBN also stocks:

You can double down on savings and convenience when you shop for ag chemicals on FBN. Simply buy the crop protection products you need online 24/7 and get them shipped directly to your farm. 


Related Resources


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FBN Network

Apr 18, 2024

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