Probably no crop has been scouted better through pollination than in 2025 says Austin Schleich, a technical agronomist with Channel. Across his geography in western Iowa, Schleich says the phenomenon of “overly tight tassel wrap” has agronomists, farmers and scouts walking the rows, looking up, and evaluating from stalk to tassel.
“In the last two weeks, it’s really blown up and had a lot of questions about it [overly tight tassel wrap,]” he says. “Myself alongside the Channel seed professionals I work with are out in the fields, monitoring our pollination pretty intensely. We are extremely happy with our pollination progress so far. However, we have seen the tight tassel wrap in other products within the geography outside the Channel lineup.”
Overly tight tassel wrap has been reported by farmers and agronomists from Ohio to Nebraska and Missouri to Minnesota. Matt Montgomery from Beck’s Hybrids says this agronomic issue “does not, at the moment, appear to be at epidemic levels but at elevated levels.” The agronomic issue is attributed to many factors including environment, genetics and rapid growth stages.
Regarding this year’s growing season, Corteva provided this statement: “The weather conditions we have seen this year have really been an anomaly – in some areas we’ve seen as much as double the normal rainfall with sustained, higher-than-normal temperatures. These same conditions can lead to the presence of disease-causing pathogens. Our field teams and agronomists are working with customers to proactively monitor and manage the potential for disease development and treatment.”
Identify The Issue
Montgomery and the team at Beck’s are encouraging farmers to make two scouting passes this year.
“We are telling farmers to conduct at least two scouting tours where they find tassel wrap,” Montgomery says. “If they detect the issue and do some preliminary scouting, they should follow that visit with a second visit a few to several days later. In many (but not all) cases, we have found that the wrapped portion of the tassel eventually does emerge.”
“The best thing we can do this year is get out in your fields and scout and evaluate your pollination,” says Lance Tarochione, agronomist with Dekalb in Western Illinois. “If the tassel was wrapped up a month ago, you weren’t really going to know that if you weren’t there at the right time to see it because the tassel gets unwrapped eventually.”
He provides this scouting guide:
- Do you see long silks?
- Do you see clipped silks, for example from insects?
- Do you see strange pollination patterns on the ear?
- Do you see kernels on the ear that are in vastly different stages–most of the kernels on the ear are at the same stage, but if you’re having pollination problems and the pollination window gets strung out longer, you might have kernels of different sizes on an ear
- Did the tip fill?
- Did the butt fill?
- Does the tassel look normal, small, have only one spike and no branches?
“We’ve observed that tassels with a big flag leaf are more likely to wrap,” he says. “And perhaps tassels with a hybrid with a tassel with a single spike and no branches might be more prone to tassel wrap. Hybrids that don’t exert the tassel well up above the leaves in the corn plant might be more prone to tassel wrap. There’s a lot of hybrids that have a very upright leaf structure.”
What to look for is one aspect, and equally as important is how to scout for pollination issues.
Brian Weihmeir, sales agronomist with AgriGold in central Illinois says, “Do scouting in the right way. We don’t want to go out and shuck back one ear and think you have a problem. Take multiple samples. Look at multiple hybrids. Multiple planting dates. Make sure we get a handle on what we are seeing.”
Weihmeir says his geography across central Illinois has not seen an overabundance of tassel wrap.
In western Iowa, Schleich says he’s seen a field where a majority of the plants were exhibiting tight tassel wrap—tassels gripped by the flag leaf to where pollen will not shed to reach silks below.
Is it Genetics or Environment?
Tarochione says opinions vary widely as to what is causing overly tight tassel wrap. But he believes undoubtedly it’s a function of genetics and environment and he strongly affirms there are more pollination issues in 2025 than just tight tassel wrap.
“Obviously, it’s ‘G by E.’ We talk a lot about how genetics and environment interact in all things agronomy. This is no different. But I don’t know that I feel confident we have a good handle on if there are specific environmental conditions that are causing it,” Tarochione says.
Genetics
Weihmeir points to plant characteristics exhibited by hybrids—pointing to hybrids with more inline tassels—less branching.
“It’s a more condensed tassel structure,” he says. “We have hybrids with condensed tassel types, but I haven’t seen tight tassel wrap in our portfolio widespread.”
In western Iowa, Schleich has observed the most consistent observation for tight tassel wrap has been in hybrids with tassels having a single branch.
Planting Dates
Schleich says he’s seen the tassel wrap phenomenon across a wide variety of planting dates–from April 15 to May 7.
Tarochione adds, “I don’t think that there is a specific planting window. It’s been observed in many states as pollination has progressed northward in the corn belt. I do not think it is restricted to a particular planting date window. I’ve seen May planted corn doing it. I’ve seen early April planted corn doing it. To me the planting window is the 2025 growing season.”
Other Pollination Issues
While tight tassel wrap brings a novelty interest in pollination issues, there are many other agronomic concerns during this important time in the corn crop.
“The tassel wrap phenomenon itself is a little bit unique based on my experience, but there’s other things that are causing pollination issues that are not unique,” Tarochione says. “In some cases a little bit too much attention is being paid to tassel wrap when there’s other things that can cause pollination issues.”
He points to timing issues such as when hybrids miss the nick, and silks aren’t adequately pollinated. Additionally, he reports many fields with smaller than average tassels and tassel development issues.
“Tassel development happens at about V6 in a corn plant. So we’re talking a long, long time ago that the tassel was formed in the corn plant long before you could see it. I see lots of very small tassels. I see lots of tassels with no branches. I see tassels with skeletonized branches. I see tassels that are probably producing less pollen than a normal healthy tassel would. So I think that can be playing into the pollination issues as well.” He says.
Schleich agrees says timing is paramount for successful pollination—from the emergence of silks, the length of silks and the spread of pollen once it sheds. In his geography—but not necessarily within Channel hybrids—he’s seen elongated silks which also cause pollination issues.
“If you are seeing pollination issues now, go back in a couple of weeks and evaluate pollination success with overall ear development to see how any of these problems contribute to overall yields,” he says.
What could tight tassel wrap mean for yield?
Tarochione says you can have tight tassel wrap and acceptable pollination.
“You can have tassel wrap and have acceptable pollination in a field with tassel wrap. And you can have poor pollination in fields that aren’t struggling with tassel wrap,” he says. “So it’s more complex than just does it have tassel wrap or not when it comes to pollination. Because if you’ve got two hybrids in a field like in a split planter scenario where you had hybrid A on the left side hybrid B on the right side of the planter. It might pollinate just fine, even with a wrap tassel, because the other hybrid will pollinate it.”
What does this mean for next year?
Clayton Robinson, Channel Corn Brand Portfolio Lead says, “ultimately, our breeding organization is very aware of that this issue [tight tassel wrap] is going on in the industry, and we are probably looking at this with a finer tooth comb moving forward. We’re really happy with how Channel corn products have pollinated in the field this year, but it’s always a good reminder to continue to be vigilant, to look for potential genetic issues that can present themselves when the environment is right.”
And for next year’s seed selection, AgriGold’s Weihmeir says this agronomic phenomenon highlights the need for genetic diversity across the corn hybrids planted.
“Every year is different. With our research, it’s important to have genetic diversity to mitigate risk and maximize yield,” Weihmeir says.
Farm Journal reached out to all major corn seed companies who supply the Corn Belt. Some did not respond. Stine Seed and Wyffels Hybrids said their agronomists are not seeing the tight tassel wrap in their portfolio and therefore chose not to comment further.
