Extension News & Views

Below is a review of 2016 corn disease issues in Minnesota by U of M Plant Pathologist Dean Malvick. As winter weather begins and we accept a slower pace, take time to educate one-self on possible 2017 growing season crop health issues and management strategies. As you select seed for the 2017 growing season, it would be wise to ask your seed agronomist about the disease package available in hybrids being considered.

Goss’s leaf blight and wilt was seen at significant levels in multiple fields, especially in fields damaged by hail in July in southwest and central MN. Significant yield losses were reported from a few fields. Thus, Goss’s wilt continues to be a disease to watch for given its potential to reduce yields. In fields with confirmed risk of Goss’s wilt, especially where it was confirmed previously, highly resistant hybrids should be considered in future years when corn is planted. Given its prevalence last year in southern MN and IA, northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) was perhaps the most anticipated and watched-for corn disease. Fortunately, it did not became a significant problem in most areas in Minnesota. Initial reports of this disease in southern MN in July raised the level of concern, but then the full set of favorable factors needed to get this disease really ‘going’ never came together. Unfavorable combinations of rainfall and temperature in July to mid-August when the crop is most susceptible to yield loss likely limited disease development. Later in the season it was not difficult to find NCLB lesions in many fields, a reminder that there is a fresh crop of inoculum of the NCLB fungal pathogen in many areas that could incite problems in 2017 if conditions favor for disease development.

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