With Independence Day just around the corner, growers will be looking to see whether their corn crops reach the proverbially knee-high by the 4th of July. While some crops will hit the mark many won’t, due to delayed planting this spring, says Jami Loecker, agronomy service manager for Syngenta.
“We had areas in the Midwest that were really wet, and we had areas that were really dry, both of which contributed to the planting delay,” she says. “So right now, in general, the corn is probably a little behind compared to where we typically would see it.”
Benefits From A Fungicide Application At R1
Loecker is encouraging growers to plan on a fungicide application at the R1 growth stage (tassel) to help protect corn from disease and, at the same time, mitigate some of the heat and drought stress the crop is likely to experience during reproductive stages.
She says a fungicide application at R1 helps corn:
- Use water more efficiently
- Preserve soil moisture
- Improve CO2 assimilation and nitrogen utilization
- Extend the grain-fill period
“What we don’t want to have happen is for disease to get ahead of us,” she says. “That could cause us to need to make earlier fungicide applications if we get significant disease onset prior to that R1 timing.”
What Is A Driver Disease?
Increasingly, Loecker is concerned about the potential impact from tar spot and southern rust, what she says are two key “driver diseases” impacting corn.
“A driver disease is going to be the most impactful from a yield perspective. It also would be the disease that’s the most difficult to control, whether that be due to the timing of when it comes into the field or because the aggressiveness of the disease,” she explains.
“The other thing to consider is do we have a way to manage the disease? If it’s a driver disease, it’s going to drive us to make a decision. We have some diseases, like bacterial diseases, that we don’t have treatments for, so they don’t drive us to make a crop protection decision,” she adds. “It’s more the fungal pathogens that are going to be those disease species that help us determine what our next steps are.”
Know What Your Fungicide Can Accomplish
Loecker is encouraging growers to lock in their fungicide applications now with retailers, to make sure product is available and to get on retailers’ schedules. In the process, she says to ask retailers two questions:
1. Which fungicide will provide the best control on the driver diseases in your specific fields and area?
2. Which fungicide can support corn plant health and mitigate heat and drought stress during the critical reproductive stage of the plant’s life cycle?
“There are certain fungicides that do improve plant health and help with stress, while addressing driver diseases, and there are a lot of fungicides that do not,” she says. “Your retailer can help you answer the question of which fungicides do both.”
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