Colour banding on cereal seedlings

Summary

Colour banding is a mostly-benign natural phenomena occurring in some cereal crops on the first and second leaves. It is due mostly to cold nights and sunny mornings in the developmental phase of these crops.

The banding can sometimes be more severe than just a pale colour and dead patches on the plant can also develop. Affected seedlings, however, usually grow normally with the colour banding not affecting the productivity of the plant.

This Agnote includes information on the symptoms and the cause of colour banding.