Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: sunflower

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: biological control, chemical control, cultural control, economic threshold, host resistance, pesticide application timing, pesticide resistance management, pesticides

• Crop Production: crop rotation, cropping systems

Approximately 85 to 90% of the 1.5 M acres of sunflower in the U.S. are planted in the North Central States. According to the National Sunflower Association (NSA), diseases are the most significant biological yield-limiting factor for sunflower production, yet few pathologists work on sunflower and until recently, limited Extension materials on sunflower diseases were available. As a consequence, disease identification and management consistently have been very challenging and some growers resort to a ‘spray and pray’ approach to disease management. To address this problem, the Sunflower Pathology Working Group (SPWG) was formed with support from the North Central IPM Center. The mission of the SPWG is to develop Extension materials, programs and events in multiple sunflower production regions that will help growers and stakeholders identify diseases and other pests as well as facilitate their ability to use IPM. For FY2025, we designed four objectives, (1) Maximize skills, collaborations and communications to improve sunflower disease identification, management and IPM, (2 and 3) Facilitate increased ability of practitioners, growers/stakeholders to identify plant diseases, and (4) Facilitate sunflower IPM learning among practitioners. For objective 1, methods will include completing and discussing the EHETI Enneagram Test, participation in the WhatsApp group “Helia’ and participation in two annual meetings. For Objectives 2 and 3, we plan to create two parallel 16-card diagnostic series tentatively titled “Plant Disease Diagnosis”. Both publications will provide growers/stakeholders and practitioners with a step-by-step guide to most effectively diagnose diseases (what tools to bring to the field, questions to ask the farmer, how to take a sample, etc). For Objective 4, we will complete the final two publications of the four-part series set of APS Plant Health Progress Diagnostic Guides on sunflower head diseases.  To accomplish all the proposed objectives, we anticipate partnering with the NSA, whose membership will provide the SPWG feedback and guidance on current and future projects, and are committed to exploring partnership with the Crop Protection Network to broaden reach and impact. This proposal is designed to help fulfill the mission of the NCIPMC to champion the development and adoption of IPM, with an intense focus on addressing the information, resource and educational needs of stakeholders, and enhancing the communications and collaborations around those IPM topics.  Anticipated impacts include increases in learning among stakeholders leading to their increased ability to correctly identify and manage diseases.  Ultimately, we envision our impact is that our educational resources will help facilitate a shift in disease management from ‘spray and pray’ to IPM at a state, regional, national and international scale.

1) Maximize skills, collaborations and communications to improve sunflower disease identification, management and IPM, 2) Facilitate an increase of practitioners, growers and stakeholders to identify plant diseases, 3) Facilitate an increase in international expertise and education bringing value to the US sunflower practitioners, growers and stakeholders, and 4) Facilitate sunflower IPM learning among practitioners.