More Goss

Our good poster friend John Hall in Arkansas posted about his corn that is sick.  I am sure he wonders what that cause is and how he can prevent and cure that problem.

  It is the kind of sick corn we have talked about here the last 3 years or so.  You can't tell from a picture but it help explains the story.  I sent the post to our friend Dr. Huber, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University.  He said "At this distance it looks like 'classic' Goss' wilt at this stage of growth/environmental conditions. It only gets worse. Check with Elisa test (Bob Streit or Amie Bandy), or U. Nebraska Lincoln Plant diagnostic lab. If Goss' confirmed, take remedial action as soon as possible since this is a systemic bacterial disease."

In my experience, it does only get worse.  If those plants aren't already, they will start leaking plant milk and it all goes down from there.  It can't ever heal itself.  There are some curatives that include citric acid but prevention is the best goal as all diseases are.

They are far enough ahead of us in Arkansas that their corn is in the proper stage to see these results.  I will be looking for similar lesions and problems in Ohio corn and neighboring states  I watched out for Stewart's Bacterial Wilt for years as I saw corn highly affected by it but now it is these black lesions on the stalk that start leaking white sap and salting out the plant juices right down the stalk.  I sure think this problem was part of the 125 bu national yield last year and I am very concerned about it this year.

There isn't a doggone thing I can do about it but keep learning about how to keep a non GMO seed clean, how to find it and plant it and how to nurture it once it's in the ground.  That's all we can do.  If I have to spray a curative, which I will, the horse is already out of the barn.

Oh, I wish we didn't have these problems to deal with but we do.  If USDA thinks there are really that many acres of corn this year and it is going to yield blank bushels like their report says, I really wonder what they are smoking up there.

That report is no where close to reality in my mind but I do really hope they are closer to being right than I am.

My corn was sick five years ago but I didn't know what I was looking at.

Ed Winkle