Late fall and early winter is the ideal timeframe for making corn seed treatment decisions for the upcoming growing season. As you consider available options, you’ll want to keep in mind factors such as individual field conditions, local pest pressures and management practices you’re already using.
You know better than anyone that while seed looks great in the bag, it’s important to have a strategy for all the ways things can go wrong once it’s planted. (Just ask farmer Andy Rahe, who uses corn seed treatment to help the corn crop around Iowa’s famous Field of Dreams.)
When you invest in seed treatments for corn, you give your crop several advantages. Here’s what to expect.
Top benefits of corn seed treatment
The benefits of investing in corn seed treatments such as fungicides and insecticides include:
- Strong stand establishment
- Higher yield potential
- Better plant vigor
Let’s take a look at the key decision points and factors to evaluate as you’re finalizing corn seed treatment decisions for next year.
Protection against early-season diseases
Young corn plants face numerous threats from pathogens that thrive in the soil. Fungicide seed treatments can be especially helpful in reducing your crop’s susceptibility to these diseases and ensuring your corn gets a strong start.
Among the biggest disease threats are seedling blights, root rots and smuts. They are especially common in fields where organic matter has substantially increased over the years (for example, eastern South Dakota saw soil organic matter rise 24% from 1985 to 2010) due to a transition to more corn production.1
Organic matter can be a great thing, but it can also have unintended consequences. More organic matter can come from higher levels of residue on fields, which makes it harder for soil to dry out and warm up. That can create dark and moist conditions in which diseases thrive.
You can address residue cover during harvest time by chopping stalks with a combine header or stalk chopper, using strip tillage to keep residue away from seed beds and even baling residue.
Protection from early-season insect pests
Insecticidal corn seed treatments can help keep away critters that enjoy eating your crop. Common pests that target corn early in the growing season include black cutworm, nematodes, seed maggots, white grubs and wireworms.2
Some seed treatments are specifically designed to protect particularly vulnerable parts of the corn plant, especially the roots. For example, it’s possible to limit root damage by adjusting the levels of various chemistries used in fighting corn rootworm, especially if Bt resistance is in play.3
It’s also been shown that insecticide seed treatments can pencil out on fields when one or more of the following conditions is true:
- You’re planting the same crop back to back in consecutive years
- The same pests recur year after year
- Planting is especially early or late
- You’re using reduced tillage
- You’re double-cropping4
Corn seed treatments should be used in conjuction with Bt seed traits for both above ground and below ground insects.
Enhanced yield potential and early-season vigor
Corn seed treatment is an important way to protect your yield potential early in the growing season. If the label on your seed indicates it has a low germination rate, a quality seed treatment paired with proper plant population can be one way of guarding young plants and helping them establish a proper stand. For instance, if your specific variety’s germination rate is under 90%, it’s a good idea to increase your seeding rate.5
Pair this approach with treated seeds to mitigate disease and insect risks.
How to optimize the effectiveness of corn seed treatments
To make sure your seed treatments do their job in the field, review the field records you’ve kept over the yields. Study cropping patterns and any historical information on disease or pest outbreaks. This can help you select the proper treatment alongside existing best management practices that keep these issues contained.
Those management practices can include proper hybrid selection, fertility management and planting approaches. Look for ways to optimize corn health and stand establishment at every stage of the crop’s growth, starting pre-planting with corn seed treatment products such as Poncho® Votivo®.
Whether you need corn insecticide seed treatment, corn seed treatment fungicides or other products to get next season set up right, experts are available to help you make your decisions. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent, or a seed company professional like your regional BASF representative.
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Endnotes
- South Dakota State University Extension. Managing Corn Diseases with Seed Treatments. South Dakota State University, 2019, https://extension.sdstate.edu/sites/default/files/2019-09/S-0003-49-Corn.pdf. Accessed 30 June 2025.
- BASF. “Poncho Votivo - Corn Seed Treatment.” BASF Agricultural Solutions, https://agriculture.basf.us/crop-protection/products/seed-treatment/poncho-votivo.html. Accessed 30 June 2025.
- University of Minnesota Extension. “Strategic Farming: Let’s Talk Crops—Weekly Webinar Series.” University of Minnesota Extension - Minnesota Crop News, 7 Mar. 2025, https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2025/03/strategic-farming-lets-talk-crops.html. Accessed 30 June 2025.
- Brown, Sebe, et al. “Effect of Cover Crop and Seed Treatment on Stand Establishment in Corn, Cotton and Soybeans.” LSU AgCenter, 20 Dec. 2020, https://www.lsuagcenter.com/profiles/lbenedict/articles/page1608473535199. Accessed 30 June 2025.
- Licht, Mark, and Zachary Clemens. “Considerations for Corn Seeding Rates.” Integrated Crop Management, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, 9 Apr. 2021, https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/post/considerations-corn-seeding-rates. Accessed 30 June 2025.
