Location: Crop Production and Protection
Project Number: 0500-00102-001-004-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 5, 2020
End Date: Jun 4, 2025
Objective:
The first objective is to establish the association between inoculum intensity, disease development and weather in small plot trials for gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight of corn. The second objective is to establish the association between initial inoculum, disease development and weather in commercial corn fields for gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight.
Approach:
Small plot experiments in Objective 1 will be established at the Iowa State University (ISU) Southeast Research Farm, near Crawfordsville and the ISU Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy Farm, near Boone. Consultation with ISU Extension and Outreach Field Agronomists will be made to select, sample and assess 25 commercial corn fields across Iowa for the experiment described under Objective 2. The PI will supervise a research associate assigned to the project to collect, ship and/or process corn residue and aerosol samples, monitor gray leaf sport and northern corn leaf blight development, and monitor growing conditions following the protocols detailed in the proposal. The research associate will also quantify pathogen inoculum in terms of spore density in sample vials collected from spore traps placed within the small plot trials located in Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, and Mississippi using Q-PCR.
