This guest post written by Sherri Roberts, Regional Crops Specialist – Weyburn, SK. To learn more about ergot, see the links below.

Three things are needed in order for a disease to occur:

• a susceptible host,
• a disease causing organism and
• the right environment.

Saskatchewan fall rye varieties are all rated as moderately susceptible to ergot. While rye is the principal host; barley, wheat, triticale, oats and numerous species of cultivated and wild grasses are also susceptible.

The ergot causing fungal organism, Claviceps purpurea, has the ability to Continue reading →