Reduction of chemical control in winter barley cultivar mixtures

Monoculture of modern cereal crops are popular due to the technical and organizational reasons. They are easier in crop husbandry, quality and product use. However, in monoculture chemical protection of crops is a norm, due to the fact that they are more susceptible to diseases, pests and sometimes weed infestation. In order to keep high and stable grain yields and quality in monoculture one has to use high inputs. Experimentally and practically it has been proved that cultivar and species mixtures can constitute an alternative to cultivar growing in pure stands. It has been found that in mixtures opperate different epidemiological and ecological factors, which lead to considerable disease reduction, pest and weed control, which finally result in higher and more stable grain yields than in barley varietes grown in pure stands. The results of two years field experiment designed to evaluate epidemiological and economical effects of winter barley cultivar mixtures are presented. The studies were carried out in two sites - Experimental Station for Variety Testing Slupia Wielka (in Wielkopolska region) and Plant Breeding Station Bakow (Opole District). This two sites were 300 km away from each other, and had different soil and meteorological conditions. In the experiment impact of different barley cultivars and their different two- and three-component mixtures were tested with reduced dosages of fungicidies on grain yield in the mixtures compared with pure stands were evaluated