News
Rain heightens crop disease risks in Missouri
All the rain in Missouri has raised the risk of crop diseases.
MU state field crop plant pathologist Kaitlyn Bissonnette tells Brownfield they’ve seen a lot of root diseases already and farmers need to start looking for foliar disease development as crops reach the reproductive stage.
“All of these rains will really increase our disease potential in the coming weeks. And if they continue, even if they’re spotty here and there, all of that is going to increase that disease pressure that we have moving forward. It’s all about that disease triangle.”
She says southern rust in corn has been detected in southeastern Kansas so growers in southwest Missouri need to be on the lookout while also scouting for northern corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot.
For soybeans, Bissonnette says she’s started seeing Septoria brown spot but since it’s in the lower canopy she doesn’t recommend fungicide application. She urges growers to be on the lookout for the more destructive frogeye leaf spot.
Brownfield interviewed Bissonnette at the University of Missouri Pest Management Field Day July 8th.
