Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Goss's Wilt?

"On Tuesday, June 18, samples were taken from corn fields in Madison Parish that had both classical leaf symptoms and disease spread pattern of Goss’s wilt in the corn hybrid DK 6694. Unless I have skipped something in the literature and assuming a positive identification of the bacterium, this is the first report of Goss’s wilt in Louisiana.


Why here and why now?  "Suspected Goss’s wilt in corn in Madison Parish Louisiana in June 2013.

During the 2011 corn growing season, there were reports of Goss’s wilt in northeast Louisiana. But upon further investigation, the symptoms were identified as fertilizer burn, herbicide burn and drought symptoms that were widespread that year."  Was the symptoms correctly identified?

This year, the approximately 50-foot-diameter circles of symptomatic plants were found by a local aerial applicator who flew over the field in question"

Why here and why now?  Could it be trait insertion?  Has the molecular pathway for nutrient flow been disrupted?  Is xylem and phloem not working properly?  These are the questions I would ask.

I have reported pink leaves on corn before it dies prematurely coast to coast for three years or so now.  It's in my county and just about everywhere I scout corn.  I have even found it on my own pictures of my own crop and other men's crops years earlier.

After watching the spring of 2013 evolve and seeing the problems of the past show up in different fashion, I am convinced we have a problem with our corn crop.

I have my suspicions but I am afraid we will have to endure a few more or a whole lot more crop crashes before we wake up and really investigate the symptoms and link them to real problems.

What do you think?

Ed Winkle

4 comments:

  1. Things are different....

    We are planting drought stressed seeds into what was a cooler wet soil here.

    Last year the residual chemicals didnt get enough rain to stay active. Now with rain there is chemical carryover into corn fields.

    Corn and I never got along. So I switched to more wheat. There were a few years back that dad went 100% soys. We can't do that....I'm not planning on any double crop beans this year. Cover crops and maybe a forage crop after wheat is the plan.


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  2. Goss' s wilt was first documented in 1969 in Nebraska. It had nothing to do with gene insertion Ed as genetic engineering didn't exist. I think the problem is that there are some very good corn hybrids that are naturally weak against goss' s wilt. Those hybrids become popular because of performance data and see their acreage expand. That ramps up the likelihood of seeing goss' s wilt in areas.

    Our corn looks fantastic. It is all genetically modified. You are quick to blame genetic engineering for a crops problems.

    On the subject of pink leaves. If a corn crop finishs intact the green tissue will continue to produce sugars via photosynthesis. Since the crop has black layered the sugars have no where to go and build up in the tissue. Those sugars will turn pink/purple. It is common. It is a sign of a crop that finished very well.

    In my last comment you referred to my as anonymous. Perhaps you didn't notice I signed my comment with my name.

    David Seck

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  3. Thought you turned hateist for a minute, Ed, but then I realized what you wrote was not "God's Will."

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  4. Brad, you need to learn how to grow more corn. So do I.

    David, I am talking about the growth of Goss's Wilt symptoms after genetic insertion, not before. It started before, is it magnified?

    Chimel I never meant any hate, let me read this aloud like I always should do.

    Ed Winkle

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