MANHATTAN — A Kansas State plant expert says it’s time to take a stroll in your corn fields. Doug Jardine said that the unusually wet weather earlier this year poses a greater risk for gray leaf spot disease in corn. Left unchecked, the disease can wipe out up to a third of a susceptible corn field. Farmers should start looking first in corn-on-corn no-till fields or fields with high crop residue, he said. Infected corn will tend to show tan oval lesions on the bottom of leaves, Jardine said. Then, it becomes a waiting game, he said. Farmers should decide on whether to spray a fungicide at the point the disease shows up on the third leaf before the ear leaf on susceptible varieties or on the first leaf below the ear leaf on more resistant varieties, he said. However, Jardine said he would consider spraying anytime lesions show on the ear leaf as the plant is silking.
Thursday, July 1, 7 a.m.
