Tuesday 13 May 2014

Get well soon!

Fungal Disease

Leaf Blast is a disease caused by a certain type of fungi. They can affect the rice plants at any growth stage. Lesions occur in the leaf, lesions refer to discolored areas for blast they are usually large spindle shaped with a gray center.

Lesion caused by Rice Blast.

Blast occurs in different parts of the plant, I remember the experts Dr. Sparks and Dr. Castilla mentioned neck blast and collar blast. They also visited our field and it was confirmed that we have leaf blast. They also advised to watch out for neck blast since it may affect the panicle formation of the plant.

Boron Toxicity
We are not sure if the picture below shows boron toxicity. Upon reading some materials symptoms include appearance of yellow discoloration of leaves that spread along the margins. Brown spots also appear on the leaves.  We only saw a few leaves with this condition and we assumed that it might be the effect of the newly applied fertilizer.
Not sure if this leaf exhibits boron toxicity.


Insect Pest- Stem borer

Stem borers are insects that feed on any stage of the rice crop. Drying of the central tiller during the vegetative stage is known as dead heart while stem borer damage druring the  flowering stage result into whiteheads. Whiteheads are either unfilled panicles or empty panicles.

Yes, our field was infested by stem borers. Here's the proof. :)

Oh hello! Mr. Stem borer!

Not sure if these are stem borer eggs. We found a few leaves with tiny eggs inside.
Weeds

Echinochloa colona a type of weed was present on our field.



Even if all of these are present on our field, we will not fret.  I know we can handle this! We will just go with the flow. Applying more chemicals may aggravate the current situation so better leave it as it is. We know our crops are strong just like the people who planted them. Should  I cue the dramatic tune now? :)



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