FARMING CHEATS!
MANAGEMENT
Stop maize diseases
It’s December, and hopefully your maize is already planted, so let’s talk about a few diseases you might run into. The most common are leaf diseases. They happen when the plant, fungus, bacteria or virus causing the disease, all experience the right conditions. Leaf diseases therefore often strike when the weather changes. The stage of growth the plant is at also determines what diseases will attack. Therefore, make sure you know the different stages of your crop, so you can correctly identify the disease and decide on the correct treatment. Incorrect identification is often the reason fungicides are used for diseases caused by viruses, bacteria or even sunburn or wind damage. This wastes money and costs you yields because the real problem is not being solved. Some of South Africa’s most common leaf diseases are northern corn leaf blight, common rust, grey leaf spot, bacterial leaf streak and maize-streak disease.
Northern corn leaf blight is the most common and caused by a fungus. Common rust affects young maize plants and strikes in dew-fog conditions, especially at night when spores on the leaf surface germinate and penetrate the leaf. Early signs of rust infection are seen about five days
