Corn Resources
Corn, like all crops, may suffer from a variety of insect, disease, nutritional, and environmental stresses. Use this guide to help diagnose corn from planting to harvest.
Diplodia ear rot infection commonly occurs in the two weeks prior to and after silking. The ear rot phase first becomes visible from a distance when husks turn tan prematurely.
Corn lethal necrosis develops when two viruses occur together in the same plant. One virus is maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) which, until its appearance in Kansas, was only known to occur in South America.
Because common rust and southern corn rust can look similar, especially in the early stages of disease development, it is important to be able to distinguish between the two.
Gray leaf spot of corn is caused by the fungus Cercospora zeae-maydis. It is the most serious foliar disease of corn, not only in Kansas, but in the entire north central production region. From its first appearance in Kansas in the Republican River Valley in 1989, it can now be found wherever corn is grown in the state.
This publication offers advice to producers, crop consultants, and agronomists to manage Kansas corn crops as efficiently and profitably as possible. The recommendations provide guidelines and must be tailored to each producer’s cropping conditions.
Aspergillus ear rot (caused by the fungus Aspergillus flavus) is one of the most economically important corn ear rots in the southern United States. The fungus produces aflatoxin, which is a dangerous mycotoxin. Most governments regulate aflatoxin in food and feed, because it is harmful to humans and livestock.
Stalk rot is the most prevalent disease of corn and sorghum in Kansas. Annual losses are difficult to determine, because unless lodging occurs, the disease goes mostly unnoticed.
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Rodrigo Borba Onofre
Assistant Professor
Field & Row Crops
Chandler Day
Associate Diagnostician
Field & Row Crops