Sorghum

Sorghum, like all crops, may suffer from a variety of insect, disease, nutritional, and environmentally related stresses. This publication focuses on diagnosing causes of slow growth, abnormalities, discolorations, injury, and death of sorghum plants from crop emergence through harvest.

This publication helps producers manage their sorghum crop as efficiently and profitably as possible under Kansas growing conditions. Recommendations should be considered as guidelines and must be tailored to situations based on the cropping system, soils, and weed populations encountered in that field.

Sooty stripe, caused by the fungus Ramulispora sorghi, occurs on sorghum at all growth stages. Infection occurs on the oldest leaves first and most extensively.

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.