Can ‘On-Farm’ Seed Priming and Chitosan Seed Treatments Induce Host Defences in Winter Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under Field Conditions?

Enhancing host defences through induced resistance, disease tolerance, and/or escape, in combination with current management regimes may be a valuable strategy to reduce pesticide use. Since both ‘on-farm’ seed priming (OSP) and chitosan (CHP) have been reported confer varying levels of defence, this study sought investigate their potential deliver control as for sustainable foliar pathogens winter barley. Field experiments were conducted determine the effects OSP CHP at two different field sites using three cultivars under fungicide/non-fungicide regimes. Overall, no evidence was found suggest that or can induce effective resistance temperate conditions. However, these trials enabled identification candidate traits tolerance (and escape) primary secondary spread powdery mildew, i.e., large canopies rapid stem elongation respectively. Thus, treatments escape traits, but benefits are dependent upon successful establishment vigour first. The integration into crop protection better undertaken spring crops semi-arid agriculture where added emergence help compensate negative environmental interactions.