Wheat – Seed Inoculant Treatment | Crops

Wheat is cultivated in soils tilled for years, exposing Beauveria bassiana (Bb) to sunlight and heat, thus removing it from the landscape. Observed areas where sawfly has become a pest, Bb is nearly extinct. This seems true for Hessian fly regions as well. The absence of any organism contributing to the health of its host permits challenges from new circumstances.  These unique circumstances can attract or favor new pathogens.  The sawfly is bivoltine and partial univoltine.  This refers to the number of broods in a season.  Univoltine eggs can survive winter in their host and incubate with spring temperatures. Given that scenario, imagining an outcome without Bb providing plant resistance is easy.

While much of the natural characteristics Beauveria bassiana offers can be substituted with other organisms through chemical applications or plant genetic modification, each has a singular resolve.  This is observed in contrasting organic farming with conventional practices.  Yield and quality increased with both methods. Organic without fungicides, pesticides, or application of foliar biocides demonstrated that wheat seed inoculated with Bb at planting tends to equal yields from conventional practices without fungicides.  Consistent in all crops is improved germination and emergence.

Adding back Beauveria bassiana is a managerial practice that significantly benefits today’s agriculture and gardening environment.

Direct contact with seed is preferred to assure plant entry at germination. Applied on, under, or atop of seed allows Beauveria bassiana competitive preference to initial plant roots where it becomes a symbiotic entophyte within the plant.