With the corn and soybean crop mainly out of the ground and flourishing, it is time to make some crucial decisions on how to care for the crop and get it to harvest. Of course, weed and insect control is critical. We can quickly and easily see the impact of those pests on the crops. Diseases are similar in the fact that we can spot a disease, but they are more difficult to find and correctly identify in time to make an effective application of a fungicide.

The first step in deciding to make a fungicide application is thinking through the disease triangle.  Do you have a susceptible host?  Do you have disease inoculum in or near the field?  Do you have a favorable environment for the disease to be present in and affect the host?  Lastly, do you have time for the disease to affect the host plants and affect yield?  In most cases, the answer is yes to all those questions when making a V5 or VT corn application as well as most R3 soybean applications.

Diligent scouting is also an option.  Diseases can spread quickly and fungicide applications must be able to be applied quickly to be effective at limiting yield losses. Most aerial applications must be planned days in advance.  This can make application timing a challenge to achieve maximum effectiveness. Also, it is hard to do diligent scouting this time of year because of busy schedules, large acreage and crops that are hard to walk though.

Planning fungicide applications is more about risk management and managing for maximum yield potential. Planning now allows for the right product to be applied at the right time on the right field.  The planned application of a fungicide is helping the crop maximize yield potential, reduce harvest losses and increase harvest efficiency. While the reactionary application to a disease threshold is more of a recuse treatment to limit losses after some damage has been done. Both strategies controlled the disease, but the planned application will most likely have a better ROI.

As with any pesticide application, you should read and follow the label directions.  Be sure to include the proper adjuvants, such as FS Talyx, with your fungicides for maximum effectiveness.  Please consult with your local FS crop specialist on specific products and setting up applications.

Originally published in Iowa Spokesman. Nate Pierce serves the FS System as GROWMARK's Crop Protection Territory Manager. He can be reached at [email protected]