Factors considered when making corn foliar fungicide application decisions in Illinois

Foliar fungicide use on corn in Illinois has increased drastically beginning in 2007. In an effort to better understand the factors considered in corn fungicide application decisions, attendees of a series of meetings in Illinois were surveyed. Results indicate that disease pressure was the most important factor considered by the greatest percentage of survey respondents (38%). Factors not related to disease or disease risk were considered the most important factor for 23% of the respondents. These results indicate that additional Extension programming is needed to teach the importance of considering disease and disease risk when making a fungicide decision.