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