Maize Fungicide Response in Three Production Systems.

Maize is a staple crop grown in much of the agriculture areas of the United States.  With several new world record corn yields being set over the past few years, there is increased interest in management strategies that push corn yield plateaus.   One tool used frequently in high management systems to protect yield is a fungicide, both from disease protection and plant stress mitigation.  In this study from Central Illinois, we are evaluating the use of two commercially available fungicides (Priaxor^® fungicide and Headline AMP^® fungicide) at various application timings in three production systems.  Fungicide benefit will be evaluated in a standard dryland system, an irrigated system, as well as a fertigated system, in which plant nutritional needs will be supplied with irrigation.  A combination of weekly leaf tissue and soil samples will be utilized to determine optimum fertility in all management systems.  Through this approach we will be able to evaluate the value of irrigation and fertigation as compared to a dryland system, and additionally we can determine the benefit of fungicide in these three distinctly different management systems.  Nutrient content in leaf tissue will be mapped throughout the growing season in each system, and fungicide benefit will be evaluated through visual disease and green tissue ratings, photosynthetic measurements, and final plant yield.