Corn Ear Molds: What Color are Your Ears?
This is the time of the year when I tend to get a ton of telephone calls regarding the presence of rotten (moldy) corn ears. Over the past few weeks I’ve observed a range of symptoms on corn ears. In extreme cases the entire ear was covered with fungal growth and corn kernels were beginning to sprout but in the less severe cases only the tip was covered with fungus. Many fungi can inhabit a corn ear and in some cases the specific fungus present will depend on health of the corn plant, whether or not the ear has sustained any damage (insect or otherwise), how far the ear filled out, previous crop in the field, length of time in the field past physiological maturity, plant stress and duration of the stress during the season, and environmental conditions.
