Acid is the quickest method, encouraging rapid skin set and minimum disease incidence. Once skin set is complete, harvesting should be completed as soon as possible. Eliminate damage at harvest, loading and grading. Wet crops should be dried with positive ventilation immediately after harvest and application of fungicide seed treatments. This reduces the spread of many soft rots that thrive in moist conditions.
Cure crops prior to storage and after grading.
This heals wounds caused by handling and prevents disease spreading. Store crops in a well ventilated cool ambient store or cold store. Rhynchosporium infection has been severe in Riviera spring barley this year. Static, by contrast, looks much healthier, despite the widespread incidence of necrotic leaf spotting in this variety. Although the exact cause of these symptoms remains unclear there is no doubt that they are associated with a loss in yield.