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Agronomist says all Midwest corn farmers should be scouting for Crown Rot

A Beck’s Hybrids agronomist says excessive spring rains have many midwestern corn fields battling crown rot this year.

Travis Burnett, based in north central Indiana, tells Brownfield fungi infect a corn plant early in development causing crown rot that is not easily seen above ground.

“There is a lot of corn out there that looks okay now, but if you were to split that stalk open you would see that crown rot. Later in the year if we have a compromised root system or compromised stalk going into the grain fill period, we could potentially have some standability issues.”

He says managing crown rot is easier earlier in the season, but there is still time to save yields.

“I still like to use some fungicides at that brown silk time frame, so anytime after tassel really. The whole idea there is to increase standability later in the year and we do that by keeping that plant alive longer.”

Burnett says crown rot is a bigger concern where there are heavier soil types like Ohio, eastern Indiana and parts of Illinois.