Corn tar spot confirmed in central Iowa

News

Corn tar spot confirmed in central Iowa

The corn disease tar spot has been confirmed in central Iowa.

Iowa State University Extension plant pathologist Alison Robertson says the detection occurred June 29th in a seed company plot in Marshall County.

“And it was confirmed in an industry plant disease clinic on the morning of the 30th.”

She tells Brownfield the infection happened a couple weeks earlier than in recent years and blames a cool, wet start to the growing season.

“Since that report in Marshall County, I have had two more reports from folks who have been out scouting.”

Robertson says one report came from Jones County in eastern Iowa and the other is in southeast Iowa’s Muscatine County.

She encourages corn farmers to look for small black circular to irregular shaped black spots that cannot be scratched off the leaf surface in the lower canopy.

.