Tar Spot has now been positively identified this growing season across 23 counties in Indiana according to Darcy Telenko, Extension Field Crop Pathologist at Purdue University.
On Wednesday, August 9, five Indiana counties were added to the list of those where positive tests were identified for Tar Spot in corn: St. Joseph, Whitley, Clay, Union, and Daviess counties.
Daniel Stauffer, a Field Sales Representative for Specialty Hybrids based out of Wabash County, says conditions have been favorable for Tar Spot to continue its spread and negatively impact corn yields at harvest.
“With the dewy mornings and the rainfall we’ve been getting, I fully expect that it would take off a little bit more,” says Stauffer. “My customers had been waiting until pollination was complete to get that fungicide on, and so that’s still actively happening.”
“We’re not too late—if you’re still on the fence and contemplating using fungicide to keep general plant health up, as well as stalk quality so we have good standability going into late season, I still would encourage to do that. There’s a lot of potential out here and we want to make sure we can protect that as much as possible,” says Stauffer.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s conversation with Daniel Stauffer with Specialty Hybrids.
