There are a number of resources available for monitoring field crop diseases here in Indiana. The Purdue Field Crop Pathology Team will be tracking diseases across Indiana and will post updates here in Pest & Crop and on our website https://indianafieldcroppathology.com/. You can also follow me on Twitter @DTelenko
National disease tracking and prediction programs are place to monitor for some the more economically important diseases in the Unites States, such as Fusarium head blight in wheat (Fig. 1), wheat stripe rust (Fig. 1), southern rust of corn, and tar spot (Fig 2). In addition, the Crop Protection Network site hosts collaborative outputs on important issues affecting field crops in the United States and Canada, this site has numerous resources and fungicide efficacy tables for corn, soybean, and wheat. There are also a few other disease maps that might be of interest, such as soybean red crown rot (Fig 3), soybean rust and southern root-knot nematode.
General resources for all field crops:
Purdue Field Crop Pathology Extension site: https://indianafieldcroppathology.com/
- Applied Research in Field Crop Pathology for Indiana
- Tar spot and southern rust in season maps
- In-season updates on diseases in Indiana
Crop Protection Network: https://cropprotectionnetwork.org/
- Fungicide efficacy tables can be found here for foliar diseases of corn, foliar and seedling diseases of soybean, and foliar diseases of wheat
- Web books on tar spot, biopesticides, white mold, and fungicide use
- Numerous crop protection resources – disease cycles, images, crop loss calculator, severity estimation tool, maps, and many more
We will continue keeping a close eye on a number of diseases in corn and soybean as we get into the growing season. Research funding from the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance are supporting sample processing, therefore there will be no charge for Indiana growers to submit corn or soybean disease samples to the Purdue Plant Pest Diagnostic lab.
Mail to: Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory, LSPS-Room 116, Purdue University, 915 W. State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2054. The lab is operating and the building is open. If dropping off a sample is more convenient than shipping, please call or email the lab prior to stopping by Phone – 765-494-7071 or Email – ppdl-samples@purdue.edu .
Examples of disease prediction and/or tracking maps.
Fig 1. Wheat: Fusarium head blight risk map for moderately susceptible cultivar on 3/27/2025: http://www.wheatscab.psu.edu/ and wheat stripe rust tracking: https://wheat.agpestmonitor.org/stripe-rust/
Fig 2. Corn: National corn tar spot and southern rust tracking https://indianafieldcroppathology.com/
Fig 3. Soybean: National soybean red crown rot map, this map shows where red crown rot has currently been confirmed. https://cropprotectionnetwork.org/maps/red-crown-rot-map
