The main fungal diseases of bread plants are parasites such as ergot, smut and rust.
Ergot development begins already in the rye flowers at the ovary stage, as a result of which sclerotia of this parasite fungus forms in the ear instead of grain, which leads to a decrease in yield. In addition, sclerotia (which contain toxic substances) that have fallen into the grain and, as a result, are ground together with it, cause poisoning of humans and animals. Also, these parasitic fungi can develop on some wild-growing cereals and on barley.
Smutty parasitic fungi can develop in the ovaries of flowers. They affect the stems and the growth point, on which the ear itself is formed, reduce the yield, which causes great harm to agriculture. These plant parasite fungi affect all types of cereal crops, but the nature of the ongoing diseases is different for each type of cereal. The most merciless parasite is considered a smut, the damage from which can reach up to ten percent of crops. In addition, this species of plant parasite fungi can also inhabit wild grasses.
How these parasite fungi reproduce, examples in front of you.
Mycelium of the fungus, developing in the affected organ, breaks up into spores with almost black membranes, as a result of which the parasite mushrooms of the plant give the stalk (spike) a charred appearance.
Affected by the smut smut, barley forms a spike with severe deformation, having a dark mass of dusty spores instead of flowers and spikelets, as well as a solid smut, forming its spores inside the grain.
Smut fungi parasites of plants in rye affect the stems of this culture.
Oats are exposed to two types of diseases: dusty and smut smut (dusty is more common).
Wheat parasite fungi affect in the form of solid smut.
Rust-causing parasitic fungi affect the stems and leaves of plants, appear as stripes of brown or orange color, then turning into black or dark brown. Rust affects both cereals and wild cereals, as well as some types of other cultivated plants. Although these parasite fungi do not directly harm cereal grains, they contribute to the appearance of poorly filled, feeble grains and a decrease in yield. Rust parasitic mushrooms can be conditionally divided into three types:
- linear rust (most common among this species);
- brown rust (affecting mainly wheat and rye);
- crown rust (preferring to develop on oats).
Rust parasitic fungi also infect other types of plants, for example, clover, flax, timothy. Even such as foxtail and wheat grass, also can not resist them.
A dangerous factor when infected with the above-mentioned parasite fungi of wild and cultivated cereals is that they eventually become poisonous and unsuitable for feeding livestock. An example of harm caused by parasitic fungi can be seen in the fact that hay containing half a percent of affected plants causes hard-to-cure diseases of livestock, sometimes ending in the death of an animal.
Plant parasites also infect winter bread (sclerotinia fungus). By the time the plants emerge from under the snow, the stems and leaves are already covered with a grayish felt of mushroom threads, which later grow in the sheaths of the leaves and inside the stems into dark, small (from one to six millimeters) sclerotia. Then these plants turn yellow after the snow melts, dries and dies.
Winter crops are subject to another danger that comes to them in the form of a greenhouse effect. The cause of the greenhouse effect is the aging, which is accompanied by the simultaneous development of parasitic snow mold, the occurrence of which is caused by the fungus fusarium.
With parasitic mushrooms it is necessary to wage an irreconcilable struggle, otherwise we will remain without bread and without animal products.
