Corn Disease

Southern rust has been confirmed in samples from 10 Nebraska counties — Adams, Butler, Clay, Fillmore, Lancaster, Nuckolls, Pierce, Polk, Thayer, and Valley. All were from fields with a low incidence of disease at the time. Growers should also be scouting for rust as well as gray leaf spot, common rust, and physoderma brown spot.

This year nematode damage in some Nebraska fields may be masked by the ample rainfall we’ve received, but rest assured, these plant parasitic nematodes are still there in almost every field. Their impact ranges from no obvious sign to severe crop injury and tremendous yield loss.

With cool wet conditions favorable for corn seedling disease development, growers are urged to scout for inconsistent stands and disease pressure. This week seedling diseases were documented in 10% of surveyed fields in Dodge County in eastern Nebraska, mostly in corn-after-corn fields in river valleys. Be sure to monitor seedling emergence and stand establishment across the state during the coming weeks so that if problems occur they can be detected as early as possible.