Greetings,   The field crop disease hub is officially closed.  We are working to transfer old articles to the cropdoc/farmdoc website.  Thanks for the 4 years of readership ..read more

Last week I was fortunate to share some of our wheat management work from this past year pertaining to Fusarium head blight and Stagonospora management with the Illinois Wheat Association.  Click the following link to access these slides:IL wheat growers 2020 Wheat is produced annually on approximately 500,000 acres across the state and is an excellent rotational crop.  In addition to providing variety in terms of crops produced, producers can produce two crops on the same acres in a single year when double cropping with soybean or another crop, and there are other benefits in terms ..read more

Each year we produce a booklet of all the various applied pest and pathogen research we conducted over the past year for use by our clientele.  Our 2020 book can now be found by clicking HERE Everything within the book is for public viewing and can be printed and shared as needed.  Please make certain to contact myself or Dr. Seiter (instructions within the book) if there are any items that you wish to share in presentations or similar. It’s been great working with you the last 4 years!  Take care! Dr. K   ..read more

Now that we are nearly wrapped up with harvest, individuals likely have questions about grain storage and grain quality.  One item that sometimes can be confusing is the issue of mycotoxins.  After all, the grain is out of the field, so that’s the end of it, right?  Unfortunately not, and storing grain under the wrong conditions can actually result in grain with increased levels of mycotoxins.  This unfortunately means that your IPM strategies for disease management in your crops also needs to extend to storage (apologies for the bad news). What are mycotoxins?  These ..read more

Corn harvest is well underway in Illinois and we should move through our harvest at a decent rate given the current forecast.  It is at this time every year that we start to see more images of mature, senesced plants and plant parts with individuals curious about, “what infected my plant” often in an effort to determine why the field may be underperformining in some manner.  Sadly, once plants have matured, it is nearly impossible to determine: 1) What pathogen infected your corn or was actually responsible for the yield impact, and 2) If the disease actually impacted the crop.  ..read more

Red crown rot is a new disease in the Midwest, and was first detected in 2017 in a single field in Pike county Illinois. The fungal disease is soil-borne and causes a root/crown rot following wet conditions near planting.  Later in the season, typically after R3, the fungus can produce a toxin that moves into the foliage.  This toxin accumulates in the leaves, killing the tissues and leaves over time.  Severely affected plants die or senesce prematurely, with the leaves staying attached to the plant.  The important thing to note is that there are several diseases and issue ..read more

Over the last two weeks our reports of southern rust have increased from a single find in the northern part of the state, to multiple detections across areas of the state, particularly in the northwest and southern areas.  Weather has been conducive for development, and hence the reason that the disease is becoming more noticeable.  In the south most corn is past R3, but late planted fields should be carefully monitored.  In the northern part of the state many fields are just hitting the R2/3 window.  Again, scout your fields to determine if the disease is present.  D ..read more

Although not widespread in the state, root knot nematodes (RKN) can be problematic for some Illinois producers of field crops and vegetables.  There are several species of RKN found in Illinois, but the  most important species in the state are Meloidogyne hapla (Northern RKN) and M. incognita (Southern RKN).  Differentiating RKN species is very difficult, and specialized tests often need to be conducted to identify the species.  As the name implies, southern RKN is found in warmer, southern climates, whereas northern RKN typically is found at higher latitudes.  This ..read more

Last week I gave an update on the diseases we are starting to see in parts of Illinois corn.  We have had a few decent rain events, the most recent yesterday, which have dropped temperatures somewhat and increased humidity throughout parts of the state.  I expect we will start to see some diseases pop up in some of our crops within the next 7-14 days, so it is important to scout and check your growth stages.  The following are the diseases we most likley will see take off in the next two weeks. 1) White mold in soybeans.  This is not a disease that causes annual widespread ..read more

Most of Illinois this season has been hot and dry, especially through central and northern portions of the state .  This has been good as far as limiting foliar diseases in our corn crop.  Fungi require some level of moisture for spores to germinate, and the fungus to grow and infect foliage.  This is a major reason why we have less foliar disease in dry seasons vs wet seasons (earth shattering information, I know!). The rains that have moved through the state the past week, though needed by our crop, also likely will cause foliar diseases to start to increase.  Recently w ..read more