Tar Spot has now been positively identified this growing season across 11 counties in Michigan according to Darcy Telenko, Extension Field Crop Pathologist at Purdue University.
Dan Cable, a Field Sales Representative for Specialty Hybrids based out of Monroe County, says conditions have been favorable for Tar Spot to continue its spread.
“We’ve had some cool mornings and we’ve had a lot of heavy dews,” says Cable. “There are a lot of people that are spraying fungicide on corn as much to get a yield bump even in the absence of a disease pressure. If we’ve had it areas that were infected in the past—if guys have been proactive and have gone in and sprayed a fungicide—then they’ve gotten ahead of it.”
“We need to continue to scout and look for it. Just driving down the road looking through the windshield doesn’t do it. We have to get out there and look and make sure it’s not there,” says Cable.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s conversation with Dan Cable with Specialty Hybrids.
