Warmer soil helps plants to emerge and grow faster which improves their ability to outgrow damage from slugs and other insects. More information on insect control can be found in the insect control section for each crop. Disease Problems in Conservation Tillage Reduced tillage leaves crop residue on the soil surface and may increase some diseases in the following crop. Other diseases may decrease under conservation tillage. For most diseases, crop rotation provides enough time for the diseased residues to break down.
Some diseases can persist longer than one year, while others can attack more than one crop.
The presence of a disease-causing organism does not mean that a severe outbreak will occur. Infection and disease development are dependent mainly on weather conditions. In most years conditions favourable to disease do not occur. The susceptibility of the crop and the previous cropping history of the field will also affect the disease level. A major concern with reduced tillage has been a higher risk of fusarium head blight in winter wheat when planting into reduced-tilled corn stubble.