Impact of tillage practices on Hessian fly-susceptible and resistant spring wheat cultivars

Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say), is a residue-borne pest of spring wheat that can become important in reduced tillage production systems. The relative abundance of Hessian fly was examined on spring wheat cultivars grown under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) practices in northern Idaho from 2000 to 2002. Six cultivars were tested: Hessian fly-susceptible 'Penawawa' and'Westbred 936' and -resistant (H3 gene) 'Wawawai', 'Jefferson', 'Hank', and 'Westbred 926.' Hessian fly egg densities were not significantly different among treatments, indicating ovipositing females showed no preference for tillage treatment or cultivar. Mean number of Hessian fly puparia per plant was significantly greater in CT plots during the last sampling in 2000; however, in 2001, NT plots had significantly more puparia than CT plots. Tillage had no significant effect on mean Hessian fly per plant in 2002. Significantly more puparia were observed on susceptible compared with resistant cultivars in 2000 and 2002. In 2001, susceptible Penawawa had significantly more puparia than resistant cultivars, whereas puparial densities on susceptible Westbred 936 were higher than on resistant cultivars other than Wawawai. Yield and 100-seed weight were not affected by tillage treatment. Significant variation in yield among cultivars was observed only in 2000, when fly-resistant Hank yielded the highest. Hank had the highest 100-seed weight in 2000 and 2001, whereas Penawawa and Jefferson had the lowest 100-seed weights each year. Reduced tillage had no consistent effect on spring wheat yield or abundance of Hessian fly under the conditions of our trials, which evaluated small plots.