Corn Disease Treatment: Ensuring Healthy Crops

Corn plant diseases pose a serious threat on Nebraska farms each growing season. These pathogens can spread quickly under the right conditions. Left untreated, they can compromise a corn plant’s ability to grow and produce grain — affecting everything from food supplies to ethanol production.

“There’s a lot of different diseases and they can be caused by fungi and bacteria, nematodes and viruses,” said University of Nebraska professor of plant pathology Tamra Jackson-Ziems.

Corn disease treatment requires careful monitoring, advanced technology and hard work.

Common Corn Diseases in Nebraska

Many plant diseases need specific conditions to thrive. For that reason, it’s common for corn farmers to face similar diseases every year, even if they solve the problem the year before.

“Most of the time [the diseases we see are] pretty consistent. That’s usually because the pathogens that cause them, like some of the fungi, they’re very well adapted to our environment and so they’re able to overwinter,” said Jackson-Ziems, who also serves as a University of Nebraska Extension specialist. “So, once a farmer has to deal with a disease, most likely they’re going to see it again year after year if conditions are favorable again.”