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Corn tar spot management “a work in progress”

An extension integrated pest management specialist describes efforts to manage corn tar spot “a work in progress.”

Anthony Hanson with the University of Minnesota says fungicide options and other control tactics are being looked at.

“I’ve definitely seen a lot of folks spraying (fungicide) this last fall, where it was an issue where we thought maybe they weren’t spraying it at the best time. But we don’t really have good timings down yet, so it’s a case where you maybe are trying to protect your crop but you maybe are burning money in the process too.”

He tells Brownfield crop susceptibility is an important consideration.

“We don’t have resistant corn yet, but there are some varieties that are what we call ‘super susceptible.’ So if you can stray away from those ones and go more towards (varieties) that have maybe slight resistance or at least not as heavy a yield loss, those are the ones we want to stick with for now.”

Hanson says hopefully corn varieties resistant to tar spot are developed soon.

Brownfield interviewed Hanson during the MN Ag Expo in Mankato last month.