‘Overly Tight Tassel Wrap’ Is Affecting Pollination In Corn

Pollination is always a critical point in corn development, and this year is no different. One development hiccup some agronomists and farmers are finding now is what Ken Ferrie describes as an overly tight tassel wrap that is impacting pollination in specific genetics.

“It’s a situation where the tassels on some of these varieties, based on the growing conditions, were wrapped too tight. The pollen couldn’t get out of the wrap, which led to a poor start of the pollination cycle,” explains Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

The problem went unnoticed by most corn growers until this week. Ferrie says farmers have been calling him the past couple of days and nights, as they’ve checked crops for pollination and found poor results.

“There’s kind of a panic when they find out they got moderate to poor pollination on some of their best genetics out there,” Ferrie said on Tuesday during a discussion on AgriTalk with host Chip Flory.

Unfortunately, there is no management practice or product that can correct poor pollination.

“The only thing we can do now, other than adjust our marketing strategies, is to think through whether we’re going to double-spray fungicide or not on a crop that’s been dinged,” Ferrie says.

Environmental Factors At Play

Fields that showed rapid growth syndrome with scattered yellow plants in early June should be watched carefully, advises Matt Duesterhaus, Crop-Tech Consulting research agronomist.

“We believe the conditions that resulted in the rapid growth in May and into June also played a role in this wrapped tassel issue at pollination,” he says.

“What we’re finding is silks that emerge a week before any pollen makes it down,” Duesterhaus adds. “As the silks continue to grow longer, the ones on the underneath side get shielded, resulting in patches of unpollinated kernels at the base or along one side of the ear.”

In Illinois, the affected hybrids Ferrie has evaluated were planted during a brief window of about April 14 through April 17 and then encountered some environmental stress – such as too much heat – during the onset of early, rapid growth.

“It’s some of our big-hitter hybrids that are affected,” Ferrie says, noting he has seen the problem in 200- and 300-acre fields in central Illinois where farmers likely planted a single hybrid.

However, in many cases, those same genetics planted the week after April 17 seem to have gone through the pollination process just fine.

“Also, if the farmer had a split planter, and the hybrids synced up in silking, farmers were able to mitigate some of the risk, because the one hybrid pollinated the other one for you,” he says.

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Farmers In Multiple States Affected

Ferrie says he is getting reports from farmers across Illinois, plus from some in Missouri and Iowa, who are finding the issue in their fields.

“It is a wider-based problem than just in McLean County, Ill., right now,” he says.

Iowa State University Field Agronomist Meghan Anderson says she has encountered the problem on a limited basis in Iowa and from one farmer in Indiana. Most of the corn in her area, central Iowa, is currently on the back end of R1 (silking).

“My impression is the affected hybrids are still producing pollen, which will hopefully shake loose and be able to pollinate the plants,” she says. “My expectation is that it will not have a big effect on corn pollination here. I can’t say that with certainty, but that’s my expectation based on knowing how corn pollinates.”

Steps Farmers Can Take Now

Ferrie is advising growers to be proactive in checking their corn for pollination, so they can decide how they want to invest in their crop during the second half of the season.

“We’re telling guys to pick 10 ears in a row and do that randomly throughout the field. Then strip the ears down, lay them on your tailgate, and try to estimate how many kernels didn’t make it,” he says.

“For simple math, let’s say that once you get done doing your numbers that roughly 20% of the kernels didn’t make it. In that scenario, you probably gave up 15% of the yield.”

In affected fields, Ferrie says he has seen potential yield losses that he anticipates will range from 15% to 40% at harvest.

“Some of these are going to bite as far as what the yield is at the end of the season,” he says.

The important step, he encourages, is for farmers to get out and check their fields for pollination so they can plan decisions for fungicide applications and whether they need to make any marketing adjustments.

“This is a tough break for some of our guys out here, but scouting can help them decide what to do next,” he adds.

Ferrie provides additional details on this issue and how to evaluate your hybrids for pollination success in his discussion with Chip Flory on AgriTalk. This is an excellent, informative discussion you don’t want to miss. Give it a listen here:

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