Application of urea at rates from 56 to 256 kg/ha either in spring or at ear emergence to ryegrass plots where blind seed inoculum (apothecia ofGloeotinia temulenta(Prill, and Del.) Wilson, Noble and Gray) was present significantly reduced blind seed infection and correspondingly increased germination of harvested seed in trials in 1972 and 1978. In the 1978 trial, sulphate of ammonia at 56 and 112 kg/ha reduced the amount of blind seed, but not significantly. In laboratory and pot testing, urea directly suppressed apothecial formation, whereas sulphate of ammonia did not do so as effectively. In the 1972 field trial, inoculum (infected seed) was introduced before nitrogen treatments were applied, and although apothecial numbers were low, no differences in apothecial numbers between treatments could be determined. In the 1978 trial inoculum (apothecia in petri dishes) was introduced after the nitrogen treatments. The results from this trial suggest nitrogen controls blind seed disease by changing the physiological susceptibility of the plant to attack, rather than by directly affecting the pathogen.
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