ABSTRACT
Brazil is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of seeds of tropical forage species. However, production has been threatened by the presence of fungi and phytonematodes, which may reduce the productivity and / or the quality of produced seeds, besides constituting sanitary barriers for several countries that import these seeds. Considering Brachiaria spp., the main diseases are honeydew and smut in the seeds, caused by the fungi Claviceps maximensis and Ustilago operta, respectively. Despite the great demand by the productive sector, there are few studies related to control strategies for these diseases. Thus, this study was carried out with the aim of evaluating fungicide efficiency in the control of these diseases. Four experiments were implemented, two of them in Embrapa Gado de Corte, in Campo Grande-MS, and two in Paraíso das Águas-MS. The cultivars BRS Piatã and Xaraés, both belonging to Brachiaria brizantha, were used. The effects of several fungicides (g ai / ha) were evaluated; they were applied in three periods for Campo Grande: plants with 10% anthesis, 20 and 40 days after the first application. In Paraíso das Águas, fungicides were applied only once, in plants with 10% anthesis. For the cultivar BRS Piatã, in Campo Grande, the best results for honeydew control were obtained with treatments T7 (trifloxystrobin + cyproconazole (150.0 + 64.0)) and T11 (first application: pyraclostrobin (97.5) + epoxiconazole (60.0), second application: tebuconazole (120.0), third application: pyraclostrobin (97.5) + epoxiconazole (60.0)). For the cultivar BRS Xaraés, the disease was less expressive with treatments T4 (pyraclostrobin (175.0)), T6 (azoxystrobin + cyproconazole (80.0 + 32.0)), T9 (first application: pyraclostrobin (175.0), second and third application: pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole (99.75 + 37.5)) and T11 (first application: pyraclostrobin (97.5) + epoxiconazole (60.0), second application: tebuconazole (120.0), third application: pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole (97.5 + 60.0)). There was no occurrence of smut for both cultivars in Campo Grande. For BRS Piatã, in the experiment at Paraíso das Águas-MS, although the intensity of honeydew and smut was not significant, with treatment T4 (pyraclostrobin (175.0)), the yield of pure seeds was 69.6% higher than that of control, producing 456.78 kg/ha, which demonstrates a high benefit/cost ratio using this treatment. This result with T4 may have been the expression of physiological effects caused by pyraclostrobin. Fungicide application on the aerial part of Brachiaria brizantha plants cv BRS Xaraés in Campo Grande, where there was high incidence of the fungi Alternaria spp., Bipolaris spp., Curvularia spp., Fusarium spp. and Phoma spp. in the seeds, showed the beneficial effect of the treatment, especially T7 (trifloxystrobin + cyproconazole (150.0 + 64.0)), which significantly reduced the occurrence of Bipolaris spp., Fusarium spp. and Phoma spp. In Paraíso das Águas, where the incidence of these pathogens was lower, results were not conclusive.
Keywords
forage; diseases; chemical control; physiological effect
