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More cases of crop diseases reported in Wisconsin
A plant pathologist says he is seeing more examples of crop diseases in recent weeks. Dr. Damon Smith with the University of Wisconsin tells Brownfield more samples coming to the lab have corn tar spot. “We do have a few fields under irrigation up in the central sands area that’s had higher severity levels so we’re keeping an eye on some of those. We know those irrigated environments, they can allow the disease to move a lot, lot faster.”
Smith says tar spot is occurring a bit later in the growing season, just like 2019.
Earlier this year, Smith says gray leaf spot was expanding through the corn canopy during humid conditions, but dryer conditions have keep most of it in the lower canopy and he’s not expecting gray leaf spot to cause significant yield losses.
And as for soybean diseases, Smith says, “Especially in the northeastern part of the state and northern third of the state, we had some areas that were high risk so we are seeing white mold showing up now in those fields as we’re getting into the later reproductive stages of the soybean plants.”
Smith says it’s too late to spray a fungicide, but growers should keep scouting to know where the heavier white mold problems are for future crop planning since it tends to come back in the same fields.
