Diseases such as gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, southern corn leaf blight, Stewart's leaf blight, yellow leaf blight, and anthracnose similarly reduce the area of photosynthetic leaf tissue, thereby increasing the plant's susceptibility to stalk rot. Control Stalk rots cannot be entirely controlled. Disease-Resistant Hybrids Corn growers should select high yield potential hybrids that also have stalk rot resistance, leaf disease resistance, and good standability. Full-season hybrids are generally more resistant than those that mature early in a given area. Resistance to the fungi that cause stalk rots helps prevent losses from premature plant death and lodging.
Many resistant hybrids are available.
Most hybrids, however, are only resistant to the organisms causing Diplodia, Gibberella and Fusarium stalk rots. Hybrids that are resistant to these fungi may be highly susceptible to anthracnose stalk rot. Hybrids resistant to anthracnose may be somewhat susceptible to other stalk rot fungi. Thus, it is important to know which organisms are causing major stalk rot damage in an area and to which stalk rot fungi a hybrid is resistant. In addition to stalk rot resistance, growers should select hybrids resistant to foliar diseases important in their area.