To answer the quesitons:

• Does in-furrow application of fungicide using liquid banding improve control of Rhizoctonia solani compared to the untreated control or seed treatment?
• Does in-furrow application of fungicide using liquid banding improve control of Rhizoctonia solani compared to coating of granular fertiliser?
• Does an integrated approach incorporating cultivation, seed treatment and in-furrow fungicide application improve control of Rhizoctonia solani compared to the untreated control and all other individual treatments?

While incidence of root rot was high (83-95%), the disease severity was low on the trial site ranging from 14.3 to 19.5% for treatment averages; many plants had a low level of root disease. Distinct patches were not evident in the trial.

Despite low levels of disease severity observed in the trial and only minor treatment effects on root rot, two in-furrow treatments were found to significantly improve the yield by more than 0.24 t/ha compared to the Untreated control. These were the granular fertiliser treated with Uniform® and the split application of Uniform® above and below the furrow.

In a site with a moderate rhizoctonia disease risk, as indicated by PreDicta B, the majority of plants had root rot however severity was low and patch development did not occur. Under low disease pressure, the Uniform treatments as a whole were able to provide a small reduction in disease incidence which subsequently resulted in yield increase from two treatments. Under higher disease pressure these products can be included as part of an integrated management approach for rhizoctonia.