Ear Drop and Common Smut in Corn

Let’s examine two key problems most growers are seeing in their corn crop this year — ear drop and common smut. These are rare in normal years, but more common in stress induced years like 2011. Be careful to not judge a historically stable hybrid this year if it is showing these problems. You really have to realize that this is a normal part of corn production in an excessively challenged environment like this summer.

Common smut was prevalent this year. Smut was enhanced due to stress during the growing season and/or physical injury to the plant such as hail or insect feeding. I believe the bulk of the ear tip smut we saw was caused by the excessive water and heat during the flowering period, insect feeding on silks during pollination, and insect or bird feeding on kernels in the milk stage. Smut is common during drought stress also. Ear tip smut is ugly, but usually not a major yield robber.

Excessive rain early on not only put stress on the crop; it also caused shallow roots and N leaching beyond the root zone. Denitrification and N leaching caused corn plants to be underdeveloped in many ways, including smaller weakened stalks, smaller and pinched ear shanks, smaller ears, less kernel depth, and shortened plant height. Weakened shanks combined with excessive October winds caused some ear drop. Fortunately, grower reports have strongly indicated that our hybrids held onto their ears much better than our competition.

Every hybrid on the market can exhibit common smut and ear drop in a year like 2011. I have seen it. Do not throw out a hybrid for these reasons along, if you have liked it in past years. That statement goes for ours or our competition.