The role of temperature and rainfall in the epidemiology of Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici in the summer rainfall area of eastern Australia

Infection of wheat seedlings by Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici was investigated under both laboratory (constant temperature) and field conditions using a 15‐h period of 100% r.h. In laboratory studies, infection decreased from 100% at 15 4 C to 0.8% at 20.5 C, and it was estimated that no infection would occur at or above 20.8 + 0.2 C. In contrast, high levels of infection occurred under field conditions even when temperatures fluctuated within the range 19–30°C. Overnight infection experiments conducted at Toowoomba over an 18‐month period demonstrated that periods of moisture and temperature favouring infection by P. striiformis f.sp. tritici occurred regularly, even during summer, and that high temperature was a limiting factor on only 3% of the nights tested. This indicates that stripe rust could oversummer readily in this region of the eastern Australian wheat belt, at least in sheltered areas, given a susceptible host. Regression equations relating mean temperature to infection and minimum temperature to infection identified mid to late autumn as an important period in the epidemic development of the disease in this region. The amount of rain recorded during this period was closely associated with subsequent levels of stripe rust observed in commercial crops over the years 1983–87.