Corn School: Fungicide trials help growers select winning disease control

Protecting yield potential from northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) and a newer pest, tar spot, requires being well-armed and ready to apply the right fungicides at the right time. That's because these diseases are not only big yield robbers, but the window to provide adequate control is quite narrow, and gets narrower with certain weather conditions.

For this episode of the Corn School, we meet with Ken Currah, business representative with BASF, to talk corn fungicide fundamentals, including tassel timing, DON suppression options, and the stay-green effect.

Tar spot does overwinter in Ontario, and that alone should identify which corn fields are at highest risk — those corn-on-corn fields will be top priority when scouting, with a keen eye on the weather, too. Currah explains that last year was a perfect example of the environment really driving disease development in some areas. 

Currah shares that Ontario growers have some excellent research data to draw from when it comes to making the fungicide decision (or decisions), citing Albert Tenuta's work on not just NCLB, but tar spot as well.

#farming #agronomy #scouting #corn

Find more episodes of the Corn School at: https://www.realagriculture.com/corn-...

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