Source: AgAnswers, an Ohio State University and Purdue Extension Partnership

Ohio's wheat crop is on its way to another growing season, but a portion of the crop is already off to a shaky start.

As many as 50,000 acres of wheat in northwest and northeast Ohio are turning yellow, said Pat Lipps, an Ohio State University research and Extension plant pathologist.

"This means that the plants are stressed," Lipps said. "And anytime you put stress on wheat plants before going into winter dormancy, you could lose those plants by the spring.

"There's nothing we can do about it. Growers are just going to have to wait and see what those plants do when the crop starts to 'green-up' in March."

Crop specialists believe the stress could be caused by several factors, including the Fusarium fungus that causes head scab and specific environmental conditions.

"We think that the Fusarium came into the fields on seed," Lipps said. "We know this because we isolated the fungus from the roots and crowns of the yellowing plants, and a large amount of it turned out to be Fusarium that is known to be on seed.

"However, wheat seed throughout Ohio was infected with Fusarium and the yellowed wheat is only isolated in certain parts of the state. In those areas, there was some sort of environmental condition that occurred that triggered this problem."

Specialists believe that extremely dry weather during planting may be to blame for the current condition of the wheat crop in such counties as Van Wert, Paulding, Putnam and Henry.

"The crop was planted into dry soil," Lipps said. "The plants got a little rain at the end of September and that was enough to germinate the seed. Then it was dry for the next two weeks. There probably wasn't enough moisture to keep the seeds growing and emerging well, and this probably created the opportunity for Fusarium to develop."

Rhizoctonia also was identified on some of the yellowed wheat. The fungus also is triggered by dry conditions.

"Overall, the wheat looks good. It has gone into winter dormancy a bit smaller than I had hoped for -- two to three tillers per plant," Lipps said. "We would have liked to have seen at least three to four tillers per plant. But fall conditions have been sufficient and the crop should fare well come spring."