Seedling Diseases in Corn and Intego Seed Treatment

Nathan Kleczewski, Extension Specialist – Plant Pathology; nkleczew@udel.edu

Field corn in Delaware and Maryland can be impacted by several soil inhabiting pathogens that can cause damping off and seedling blights, thereby reducing stands. Cool, wet weather like we have had tends to favor many Pythium species, whereas warmer weather is more conducive for Fusarium and Rhizoctonia.

Intego® is a new seed treatment available from Valent that targets oomycete diseases. This product contains the fungicide active ingredient, ethaboxam. Ethaboxam is a novel thiazole carboxamide (group 22) and is the first Phytophthora and Pythium seed treatment fungicide to be released in over a quarter of a century.  The product currently is labeled in soybean and should also receive a label in corn soon. Data from the Midwest looks very promising. Pythium can be an issue in corn grown in the Mid-Atlantic and it will be interesting to see how well this product performs under our growing conditions.