Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: sunflower

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: biological control, chemical control, cultural control, economic threshold, forecasting, host resistance, modeling, monitoring/scouting, pesticide application timing, pesticide resistance management, pesticides, prevention

• Crop Production: varieties and cultivars

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 SPWG brings together pathologists (and other disciplines as needed) who work on sunflower to generate Extension and academic resources to help growers and agricultural professionals identify and manage (using IPM strategies) sunflower diseases, and to deliver those resources in the way sunflower stakeholders identify as most useful. In FY2026, we designed three objectives; (1) Maximize skills, collaborations and communications to improve sunflower disease identification, management and IPM, (2) Facilitate increased ability of growers/stakeholders to identify the recently introduced parasitic higher plant, Sunflower Broomrape (Orobanche cumana), and (3) Facilitate sunflower IPM learning among practitioners and stakeholders. For objective 1, members will participate in; the WhatsApp group “Helia’; an annual meeting held at the headquarters of the NC-IPM Center and Crop Protection Network (potential new partner) at Iowa State, and; a stakeholder meeting (National Sunflower Association Research Forum. For Objectives 2, we will develop one detailed and a high-quality Extension publication and two Sunflower Disease Diagnostic Card additions to PP1727 focusing on Sunflower Broomrape (Orobanche cumana) (these follow up an ‘alert’ and webpage update currently being developed). For Objective 3, we will complete the sixth SPWG-authored APS Plant Health Progress Diagnostic Guide on Sunflower Diseases (“Sunflower Foliar Diseases: Rust”). To accomplish and broaden the reach and impact the proposed objectives, we partner with the NSA and with the Crop Protection Network. To ensure the SPWG and its outputs are relevant and appropriately delivered to achieve proposed outcomes, the NSA leadership serves in an advisory/evaluation capacity (brainstorming sessions, focus group and survey facilitation). 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 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 increased ability of growers/stakeholders to identify the recently introduced parasitic higher plant, Sunflower Broomrape (Orobanche cumana).

(3) Facilitate sunflower IPM learning among practitioners and stakeholders.