I have observed a few scattered plants in fields with root rot symptoms - the whole plant turning prematurely white or bleached in appearance . These plants pull up readily from the soil and are either chocolate brown, reddish-brown, or black at the base of the stem and in the crown area, the color depending on the disease organism causing the root rot. Unsurprisingly, I have seen the take-all symptoms in dryland wheat planted into wheat stubble this year. With the repeated years of scab infection in wheats and barley in some areas, more of this root rot is becoming evident in fields planted into wheat or barley ground with a history of scab. The risk of root rot problems, no matter which causal fungus, is reduced with good rotations and effective seed treatments.
Some varieties also have more tolerance to root rot problems.
In addition,herbicide injury continues to occur and now we have thrown Roundup into thepicture on a larger scale.