Physcion and its mixture with several fungicides improve the yield of wheat by increasing the control effect to wheat powdery mildew, the antioxidant activity, and photosynthetic efficiency

Abstract Soil-borne diseases are one of the greatest constraints to wheat productivity. Physcion could induce the resistance of plant and is used to control powdery mildew by spraying in China. In this study, field trial of physcion and its mixtures with fungicide commonly used on wheat was applied as seed coating agent in Huang-Huai-hai plain, the main production region of wheat in China. The emergence rate, tiller number, control effect to powdery mildew, antioxidant enzyme activity, chlorophyll content and final yield of wheat were determined. Results showed that the combination of physcion, validamycin, pyrimidine nucleotide (1#), and physcion, azoxystrobin (3#) at 1:50 exhibit the highest emergence rate, tillering number, control effect to wheat powdery mildew, defense ability enhancement of wheat leaves to stress, photosynthetic efficiency improvement, the accumulation of dry matter and the increasement of yields. The results provided an alternative approach to increase the control effect to disease in wheat fields and laid basis on the reasonable application of physcion.