Fungicide Timing is Critical for White Mold

With the cool, wet conditions seen this past growing season, white mold pressure was evident in soybean and dry edible bean fields. NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center Plant Pathologist Michael Wunsch spoke at the Lake Region Extension Roundup and said fungicide application timing is critical. “If you spray after a significant infection has occurred, you’re not going to cure those existing effects even if you can’t see the disease because the disease is moving microscopically in the plant and you can’t cure it at that point,” said Wunsch. “You can’t spray too late and you can’t spray too early because if you spray before, there is a significant risk of infection. What you’re going to be doing is leaving a tremendous amount of the new growth unprotected; the new growth that occurs after you spray and before infection occurs.”