Understanding the effect of component proportions on disease control in two-component cultivar cereal mixtures using a pathogen dispersal scaling hypothesis

A field experiment was carried out to determine the importance of component cultivar proportions to spring barley mixture efficacy against rhynchosporium or scald symptoms caused by the splash-dispersed pathogen Rhynchosporium commune. A larger effect than expected was observed of small amounts of one component on another for reducing disease overall, but relative insensitivity to proportion as amounts of each component become more similar. An established theoretical framework, the ‘Dispersal scaling hypothesis’, was used to model the expected effect of mixing proportions on the spatiotemporal spread of disease. The model captured the unequal effect of mixing different proportions on disease spread and there was good agreement between predictions and observations. The dispersal scaling hypothesis therefore provides a conceptual framework to explain the observed phenomenon, and a tool to predict the proportion of mixing at which mixture performance is maximized.