 Hi, I'm Audrey Kalyle, plant pathologist at the Williston Research Extension Center. This year I have several research projects looking at improving disease management in chickpeas and improving nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Right around this time of year, we're looking for Ascol chytoblite in chickpeas. So you can see this crop right here has one to two open flowers per plant. This is the time period, or a little bit before, where you're going to be wanting to look for Ascol chytoblite symptoms in your field. Ascol chytoblite can affect peas and lentils as well, but in those cases it's different pathogens. Ascol chytorabii is specific to chickpeas, and it's very aggressive in this crop. Peas and lentils are not susceptible to that same pathogen. They have their own separate Ascol chytoblite pathogens. So when you're scouting what you're looking for are small necrotic lesions on the leaf or the stem. In this case, this crop's pretty healthy, so I'm not seeing a lot of symptoms here. But you can look even in the top of the canopy in several locations in your field for Ascol chytoblite symptoms. Fungicides are the main way we manage this disease in the crop in addition to genetic resistance. And you're going to want to get that fungicide application on at the first sign of symptoms or early flowering. So get out there a little bit ahead of flowering. If there's no symptoms, then you can go ahead and delay that application until first sign of flowering. An important thing to note for Ascol chytoblite and chickpeas in North Dakota is that strobilian fungicides, or FRAC-11, do not work on this pathogen. There's been documented resistance. And so you're going to want to select a product from the NDSU Disease Management Guide labeled for chickpeas outside of that group. So there are several products labeled for Ascol chytoblite and chickpeas, and many of them contain a strobilian in them. Just keep in mind that that's not adding anything to the management of this disease. The main active ingredient that is not the FRAC-11 group is what's giving you just your disease control. If you need to make multiple applications for control of Ascol chytoblite and chickpeas, which in many cases you do at a 10 to 14 day rotation, you're going to want to rotate those active ingredients. It's really critical that we manage fungicide resistance in this disease as we've already lost one FRAC group for management of Ascol chytoblite and chickpea. FRAC-11 fungicides are still effective for management of foliar diseases in lentil, but recently Ascol chytoblite in peas has also become resistant to this fungicide class. Again, rotation of fungicide modes of action are critical for management of Ascol chytoblite. Another key way we manage Ascol chytoblite in chickpeas is varietal resistance. Just this year, NDSU has released a new chickpea variety, ND crown, with comparable genetic resistance to Ascol chytoblite as frontier and CDC Orion. Trials have been done in Williston and other locations, showing that that yield and disease resistance are comparable. Another variety you can select is CDC leader. Studies in Williston have shown that some varieties such as Sierra and Sawyer are very susceptible to Ascol chytoblite in our region and would require more fungicide applications to control the pathogen. Another critical management tactic for Ascol chytoblite is crop rotation. Again, peas and lentils are not susceptible to this pathogen, and so they can be a rotation with chickpeas as small grains and soybean can be good rotation options as well. You're going to want to spend a minimum three to four year break between chickpea crops because this pathogen is going to be born on the chickpea stubble in the soil. So this is particularly important where we're practicing no-till agriculture. Chickpea is a legume, and so nitrogen fixation is the source of the nitrogen for this crop. You don't need to put a whole lot of nitrogen down to keep it going, but you do need to maintain adequate nodulation. So if you're a first-time chickpea grower, inoculation is critical. Another thing to consider are seed treatments in chickpeas. Chickpeas are very susceptible to some seed-borne diseases and soil-borne diseases such as pithium. So seed treatment is very important in this crop, particularly when you're planting into cool, wet soils. More and more growers are interested in growing chickpeas, and while there are some things that you need to be conscious of to manage this crop, it's a great rotational option in drier areas of North Dakota. Thank you.