| PMEP Home Page |  |
Pesticide Use Information for New York State | |
NAPIAP Survey - Field Corn - 1994 | |
Seed Treatment |
|
According to the 1994 Cornell Recommends for Integrated Field Crop Management, diseases of corn constitute an important production constraint. They can reduce yield and the quality of grain and silage. Chemical control, though, plays a minor role in the management of corn diseases. With the exception of seed treatment, disease management involves the selection of hybrids with genetic resistance and adoption of sound crop management practices. Growers who pruchase untreated seed are urged to apply a fungicide seed treatment at or before planting to protect from seed decay, seedling blight and damping off caused by fungi on seed or in the soil.
As already discussed in the demographics section of this paper, approximately 85% of the corn planted (both grain and silage) was purchased as pre-treated seed. However, 42.1% of the acreage planted to corn grown for grain was treated with an additional seed treatment (Table 28). The least amount of acreage with a seed treatment applied by the grower was in the Upstate area (35.3%) and the most was in the Hudson River area (92.1%). Less acreage was planted with corn that was treated with a seed treatment by the grower when the corn was grown for silage (37.6%, Table 29). Other than the North Country area where 100% of the acreage was planted with seed treated by the grower, the other areas had treated seed planted on only 35-45% of the acreage.
Table 30 summarizes seed treatments used by New York State growers on corn grown for grain in 1994. Forty-seven growers treated their corn seed with a seed treatment. The combination of carboxin, diazinon and lindane (Germate Plus) was used on over half of the treated acres (57.6%), but the greatest amount of active ingredient applied (1,754.9 lbs) was captan. There was a total of 3,830.4 lbs seed treatment active ingredient applied to 5,046.5 acres of corn for grain, making an average of 0.76 lbs ai applied per acre in 1994. The greatest amount of ai applied per acre was in the Hudson River area where 2.2 lbs seed treatment active ingredient was applied per acre of corn grown for gain (Figure 16).
Table 31 shows who applied the seed treatments, the application equipment used, the timing and the basis for application of seed treatments applied to field corn grown for grain in New York in 1994. From our survey, growers indicated that they used a planter box treatment on 95% of the fields and 94% of the acreage was treated at planting. The most common reason a seed treatment was used on corn grown for grain was "routine applicaiton" (68.5% of fields, 70.6% of treated acres).
Table 32 shows a summary of seed treatments used by New York State growers on corn grown for silage in 1994. Thirty-six growers treated their corn seed with a seed treatment. As with corn for grain, the combination of carboxin, diazinon and lindane (Germate Plus) was used on over half of the treated acres (59.5%), but unlike corn for grain, that combination of active ingredients was also the greatest amount of ai applied (778.5 lbs). Captan alone was not applied to corn seed grown for silage. There was a total of 1,297.8 lbs seed treatment active ingredient applied to 2,334.6 acres of corn for silage, making an average of 0.56 lbs ai applied per acre in 1994. The greatest amount of ai applied per acre was in the Catskills/Capitol area where 0.72 lbs ai/acre was applied (Figure 17). This is one quarter pound per acre more than the other four areas.
Table 33 shows who applied the seed treatments, the application equipment used, the timing and the basis for application of seed treatments applied to field corn grown for silage in New York in 1994. One hundred percent of seed treatments were applied by the grower and 100% were applied using a planter box. The seed treatments were applied most often at planting (91.9% of fields and 81.8% of treated acres). The most common reason for a seed treatment was "routine application" (86.5% of fields, 75.7% of acres). Almost half of the treated acreage was treated because of a previous pest problem in that field.
Table 34 shows a comparison of rotation on the percent of field corn acres treated with seed treatments in New York in 1994. No discernible pattern appears except that one-quarter to one-third of first and second year corn acreage were treated and one-third to one-half of third year and continuous corn acreage were treated for both types of corn. Figure 18 illustrates the amount of seed treatment active ingredient applied to field corn by rotation. Corn for grain grown continuously had more than twice as much active ingredient applied per acre than that grown as first or second year corn. There was little difference due to rotation in corn grown for silage.
Table 35 shows a comparison of the type of tillage used on the percent of field corn acreage that was treated with seed treatments. There was little difference between conventional and conservation tillage in corn grown for grain, while almost twice as much seed treatment active ingredient was applied per acre on corn for silage that was grown using conservation tillage versus conventional tillage. The small number of acres grown using a no-till system make comparisons less valid. The amount of seed treatment active ingredient applied per acre on corn in New York in 1994 is illustrated in Figure 19. Corn grown using a conservation tillage system had the most amount of active ingredient applied per acre, when corn was grown for grain.
Table 36 summarizes those pests that growers felt needed to be controlled by the use of a seed treatment on corn grown for grain. Seedcorn maggots were the most important pest indicated by growers. There does not appear to be one dominant pest for corn grown for silage (Table 37).
Figure 20 illustrates the percent of acreage treated with seed treatments for specific pests by area of the State. For corn grown for grain, seed rots and damping off were a problem in the Hudson River area, while seed corn maggots were a problem in the other areas. For corn grown for silage, the dominant pests in Upstate and the North Country were seedcorn maggots and wireworms, while the other areas did not seem to have a dominant pest.
Figures 21 and 22 illustrate the percent of acreage treated with seed treatments for specific pests by rotation and tillage system, respectively. The large number of "no answers" (includes "don't knows"), indicates application of seed treatment without knowing why. The fact that the majority of seed treatments were made as "routine applications" confirms this.
