Fusarium head blight in wheat: Impact of growing season, wheat variety and nitrogen fertilization under natural infection

Abstract The fungal genus Fusarium encompasses a diverse group of species responsible for synthesizing mycotoxins, particularly deoxynivalenol, fumonisin, and zearalenone and inducing Fusarium head blight in wheat. The research was undertaken over a period of two consecutive growing seasons (2020 and 2021) on the premises and facilities of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE). The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of growing season, nitrogen fertilization, and wheat variety on Fusarium infection as well as mycotoxin contamination in wheat kernel. Zearalenone was absent throughout the course of the two growing seasons, whereas deoxynivalenol was found solely in 2020. The findings demonstrate that nitrogen fertilization failed to exhibit a statistically significant impact on both Fusarium infection and mycotoxin production. The impact of wheat variety on Fusarium infection and deoxynivalenol was not found to be statistically significant. However, it exerted a significant effect on fumonisin production. The growing season exerted a statistically significant impact on the incidence of Fusarium infection and the ensuing contamination with mycotoxins, attributable to augmented precipitation levels in 2021 compared to 2020, specifically during the flowering period when the spike of wheat is highly susceptible to Fusarium infection.