Corn School: Fungicides strategies for an uneven crop

It's been a tough spring for planting corn in Ontario. Planting season started in late April and some growers are now just getting their last acres in the ground during the final days of June.
That seven-week planting season will present challenges for growers as they try to assess yield potential and apply fungicides to protect the crop against disease and optimize yield. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School, BASF Canada agronomist Ken Currah looks at what growers need to consider when managing late-planted and uneven corn, across their farms and in individual fields.
When it comes to fungicides, Currah says growers' first concern is ear rots, vomitoxin and deoxynivalenol (DON). The application window here is typically the VT to R1 growth stages. "We're looking for green silks, and I like to see three quarters of an inch of silk on at least three quarters of the plants," he says.
Currah says if growers get good coverage at the right timing they can expect fungicides to deliver a 50 to 60 percent reduction in DON. In uneven corn, which produces uneven silking, that protection dips to 30 to 50 per cent.
When it comes to foliar disease, growers will have to keep an eye out for northern corn leaf blight and likely contend with another wave of yield-robbing tar spot, which has already been confirmed in the U.S. - an early arrival in Ontario fields is also expected.
In the video, Currah stresses that Ontario growers now have three years of tar spot management experience and fungicides have proven their value in research trials and in corn fields across the province. He notes that the R1 timing for application continues to deliver the best return on investment for growers.
Currah also highlights the need to think about harvest when planning a fungicide strategy for the 2024 crop. He says there's a tendency to focus on how a fungicide can reduce DON and protect yield, but this year, with an abundance of uneven and late-planted corn, the ability of fungicides to help the crop stand late in the season will be a key benefit.
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