Plan Foliar Application Now

Ag dealerships and cooperatives need to encourage growers to lock in their foliar fungicides now, says one Extension expert.

Greg Shaner, Purdue University Extension specialist, says your growers shouldn’t wait until the July to make their application decisions. Disease pressures on corn vary from year to year in Indiana so it’s difficult to determine what problems will develop this summer. However, Shaner offers tips on making educated guesses this spring about disease risk this summer that can apply across the country. Shaner’s tips are written for growers, but can apply to retailers as well.

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There are three conditions that determine whether a disease will develop on corn (or on any other crop) — the susceptibility of the hybrid, the abundance and virulence of the pathogen, and weather.

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  • Of these, the host side of the triangle is the one growers and their advisors know the most about in spring. Check the resistance ratings for important diseases in the hybrids your grower-customers plant to assess disease risk. (Granted, there is no industry standard for reporting resistance ratings. Take into account the grower’s field conditions and production practices.

 

  • It is also possible to make some educated guesses about the pathogen side of the triangle at this time. Except for the two rust fungi that infect corn, fungal pathogens survive locally. Many of these fungi survive in residue of plants they infected last summer. Although residue from last year’s corn crop has been dead for months, the pathogens in it are alive and well. As temperatures rise, these fungi produce spores on the residue. Wind will disperse spores from the residue and some will land on next summer’s corn to start a new disease cycle.

 

  • A downside of conservation tillage has been an increase in disease pressure. Leaving corn residue on the soil surface allows pathogens to survive in much greater number compared to the days when moldboard plowing was common. If corn is grown in rotation with soybeans, and the ground is worked enough to provide a clean seedbed for corn, then inoculum (spores of the fungal pathogens) won’t be abundant in that field. These clean fields aren’t without risk, however. Wind can carry spores from adjacent fields where corn residue is on the soil surface. Risk of disease is probably greater in a conservation tillage system or where corn is grown after corn. In these systems there may be corn residue in the cornfield itself. Other conditions being equal, disease is likely to get started earlier in a field where corn residue is present than in a clean field.

 

  • University trials are beginning to yield data on fungicide efficacy in hybrid corn. In five trials we conducted in Indiana last year we saw no statistically significant increase in yield as a result of fungicide application. This is not surprising because disease pressure was very light at all locations. In a summary of 89 university trials from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Plains, Headline fungicide applied at 6 fluid ounces per acre resulted in yield responses that ranged from a negative 18 bushels per acres (bu/A) to a positive 23 bu/A. The average yield response over all trials was 4.1 bu/A (Note: I single out Headline because it was included in all trials. Other fungicides were tested in some, but not all trials. Results for these were similar). In 54% of the trials the yield response was 5 bu/A or greater. For trials in which the hybrid was susceptible or moderately susceptible to gray leaf spot the average response to fungicide application was 6 bu/A. For trials in which the hybrid was moderately resistant or resistant to gray leaf spot, the average yield response to fungicide application was only 3 bu/A.

 

  • A grower who is considering an application of a foliar fungicide to corn should first determine the hybrid’s degree of resistance to gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, anthracnose, and common rust. If the hybrid has poor resistance to any of these, that would be a reason to consider a fungicide. Second, the grower should assess inoculum pressure (the abundance of corn pathogens). Corn-after-corn or reduced tillage systems will probably result in more inoculum than rotation corn with some tillage prior to planting. High inoculum pressure would be another reason, along with a susceptible hybrid, to consider a fungicide.

 

  • The big uncertainty is weather. Even if a grower has a susceptible hybrid and abundant residue in the field or nearby, weather must be favorable for disease. The dry summer in much of Indiana last year prevented spore production and infection and we saw little leaf disease. It’s impossible to say now what the weather will be like next July and August (with apologies to the meteorologists). Assuming we don’t have a drought this year, a grower’s experience may indicate that some fields are more likely to have disease problems than others. Humidity is often higher and dew heavier and more persistent in bottomlands or fields that are bordered by woods compared to fields in wide-open spaces. Long dew periods and high humidity favor production of spores and give spores that land on corn leaves time to germinate, infect, and establish new infections.

Shaner encourages those using a fungicide to leave at least two, preferably three, untreated strips in a field. If application is by air, an accurate map that shows the location of the strips is needed to compare yield in the treated and untreated areas. He also notes that it is also a good idea to walk treated and untreated areas in late August to see if there are differences in leaf health, and in late September or October to check effects of treatment on stalk health.

(Source: Purdue University)
 

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