They also found resistant wheat lines from India that ward off strains of the fungus from Mexico. By incorporating these resistant lines into U.S. wheat, breeders might be able to protect the American crop from Karnal bunt outbreaks such as the one in Arizona in March 1996. The United States exported nearly 1.3 billion bushels of wheat in 1994, making it one of the country's top crops for overseas markets. That's the finding from similar, cooperative studies in West Virginia and four countries in Europe. When the trees begin to bear fruit, strips of rape, buckwheat, dill, and dwarf sorghum planted between tree rows play roles in controlling orchard pests.
Rape is toxic to damaging nematodes.
Buckwheat flowers produce nectar and pollen to feed beneficial insects. Flowers from dill harbor beneficial parasites. And dwarf sorghum attracts aphids to the sorghum where these pests become food for beneficial insects. Peach trees act as an excellent food source for beneficial insects, when interspersed among apples trees. An ARS lab worked out this diversified approach that was then tested successfully in orchards in Romania, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.