News

Preventing Goss’s Wilt starts and ends with hybrid selection

An agronomist says corn farmers that did not plan ahead for an increasingly common bacterial disease could face difficulties this year.

Craig LaVoi covers southwest Minnesota for Peterson Farms Seed and tells Brownfield the first line of defense against Goss’s Wilt is hybrid selection.

“Goss’s is a bacterial disease, so our fungicides will not control Goss’s Wilt.”

He says the plant disease was first identified in Nebraska several decades ago and has slowly spread across the Northern and Eastern Corn Belt as corn-on-corn gained in popularity.

“When that first started showing up, obviously we didn’t have as much Goss’s tolerance across the seed industry in our products.  But the breeders are definitely seeing how important that is as one of the primary efforts breeding in the beter Goss’s tolerance.”

LaVoi says once Goss’s Wilt settles in, there’s not much a corn farmer can do.

“Maybe look at the Goss’s score on the product you’ve got dialed down for this year, and if that’s something that would warrant a change.  Maybe talk to your seed advisor to see about getting you into something with good Goss tolerance.”

LaVoi says there are a lot of good products available for growers interested in planting hybrids that tolerate Goss’s Wilt.