Abstract
The effects of scattering the infected leaves and sprinkling the field with water on the degree of infection, yield and pearled-grain quality of barley were investigated using the susceptible cultivar “Minorimugi”. Sprinkling of water before heading promoted scald development. In the plot where infected leaves were scattered before snow in December, the plants were severely infected with scald about four weeks after heading, irrespective of sprinkling. The infection degree in this plot was significantly higher than in the plots where the infected leaves were scattered in March, fungicide was applied, and neither the infected leaves nor fungicide was applied (control). Scattering the infected leaves in December seems to be a useful method to evaluate scald-resistance of genetic resources and breeding resistant lines. The plump-grain yield in the winter-scattering plot was significantly lower than that in other plots by ANOVA, and it had a significant negative correlation with the sum of infection degree during the ripening period. Lower yield caused by scald was attributed to the inhibition of grain growth, not to the decrease in the number of panicles. The pearling time and the rate of steely kernels tended to be increased with increasing scald infection, but they greatly varied with the year. Thus pearling time, rate of broken kernels, rigidity value and crude protein content were not affected by the infection.
