Influence of microelement manganese on resistance of soft wheat to powdery mildew
The effect of microelement manganese top-dressing on resistance of soft wheat to powdery mildew pathogen was studied. To study the effect of the element manganese on the development of the pathogen, wheat seedlings were fed with a 0,2% solution of KMnO<sub>4</sub>. Infected plants not fed with the test solution served as control. Observations on the intensity of germination of conidia of the powdery mildew pathogen on wheat leaves showed that the sporulation of conidia in the variant with feeding with 0,2% KMnO<sub>4</sub> solution was lower than in the control variant. We found that in the control variant without the use of a KMnO<sub>4</sub> solution, the colonies of powdery mildew fungus were characterized by abundant sporulation, the formation of a halo was observed. In the experimental variant the growth and reproduction of conidia proceeded more slowly and halos were not noticeable. In this study in the control variant of the experiment, the predominance of conidial chains in the colonies of the powdery mildew pathogen was noted in comparison with the variant with feeding. Thus, it was found that feed solution of 0,2% KMnO<sub>4 </sub>leads to a decrease in the formation of appressoria and the number of visible colonies of the powdery mildew pathogen on wheat leaves. The presented results confirm that top-dressing with microelement manganese enhances resistance of wheat against powdery mildew.