Most varieties are susceptible although some varieties are less susceptible than others. We publish variety reactions to this disease each year in the Arkansas Rice Performance Test Report available from Extension county agents in our state. Try a less-susceptible variety in fields with a strong history of the problem.

Early-planted rice has less of a problem with false smut than later-planted rice. So plant early if you can…. Duh! What is early? In our experience, anything planted in April has not had as much false smut as rice planted after about May 15.

Ease off nitrogen fertilizer rates. Like kernel smut and most other rice diseases, false smut loves heavily fertilized rice. Fields with nitrogen rates above 160 pounds per acre tend to have the most false smut.

While we do not have specific fungicide recommendations for this disease, we do have three years of data on the effectiveness of various rice fungicides. The most consistent and effective has been propiconazole, the active ingredient in Tilt or Propimax and one of the two fungicides in the new product, Stratego. When applied during the boot stage, all these products have reduced the number of smut balls in harvested grain by 50 to 75 percent, depending on the test. While not offering perfect control, this level of suppression can be pretty impressive when grain from untreated plots is compared to grain from treated plots. If you are already going to use propiconazole for kernel smut or if you have a serious history of false smut in a field, this fungicide should help out.