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Don’t panic about early tar spot detections
An extension plant pathologist is encouraging growers to scout their fields for early tar spot development.
Tamra Jackson-Ziems with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says farmers shouldn’t panic if they identify the disease. “Once this fungus becomes a permanent resident. It’s over wintering. This is what they typically see in the Eastern Corn Belt. It’s not unusual, for example, for our colleagues in Indiana to already see this disease developing.”
She tells Brownfield research at Purdue University shows it’s more effective to wait later in the growing season to apply fungicide. “Even when disease like this shows up in the early leaf stages during V6 and V7, still the best applications of fungicides are those are made around early reproductive stages like at VT or R2 to R3.”
Jackson-Ziems says applications should be done before disease severity reaches about 5 percent on the ear leaf.
According to the Crop Protection Network, tar spot has been confirmed in Porter County, Indiana, McDonough County, Illinois, Doniphan County, Kansas, Poweshiek and Audubon counties in Iowa and Clay, Saunders and Piece counties in Nebraska.
Tamra Jackson-Ziems:
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