Vomitoxin management and corn fungicide decisions during pollination

By Jason Hartschuh, CCA, Piece Paul, Stephanie Karhoff, CCA/CPAg, The Ohio State University

Deoxynivalenol (DON), commonly referred to as vomitoxin, has become a significant problem for Ohio corn growers. What was once considered an every-ten-year problem has now become a yearly challenge in some sections of the state. DON contamination of grain is associated with Gibberella ear rot (GER), a disease caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum. The Ohio State University Cereal Pathology Lab led by Pierce Paul, PhD, has been researching and developing weather-based models to predict when weather conditions are favorable for DON contamination of corn grain. The current models predict when conditions are favorable for grain to be contaminated with at least 1 ppm DON.

DON model predictions are based on data from publicly available weather stations. The two weather variables used to make predictions are temperature and relative humidity. These conditions can vary significantly over a few miles or with changes in elevation.… Continue reading