Midwest Corn Growers Establish Spore Trapping Network to Monitor Emerging Pathogens

Through funds from the Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council, Root Applied Sciences has established a sentinel network of 30+ devices across Southern and West Central Minnesota. The goal of the project is to detect the emerging pathogens of Southern Rust of Corn and Tar Spot in advance of their infection of corn. Root has installed additional devices in a concentrated Focus Network in Lyon and Redwood counties to better study density and placement of devices in commodity crops.

Early Detection for Effective Fungicide Management

Midwest corn growers have faced increasing pressure in recent years from emerging foliar diseases such as Southern Rust and Tar Spot. Building on its success in detecting these pathogens in research trials, Root Applied Sciences is developing a network of airborne spore traps across the Midwest. This network will provide growers with timely information about pathogen spores present in the air, enabling them to make more informed, data-driven fungicide and crop management decisions. By identifying disease risk before symptoms appear, growers can better protect yield while optimizing input costs.

Actionable Disease Intelligence

In 2025, Root Applied Sciences deployed six monitoring stations across Nebraska in paired locations arranged from north to south, with devices positioned 5-7 miles apart to track airborne pathogen movement.

Beginning in early July, the stations collected samples that were analyzed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln using qPCR testing.

The network successfully detected spores of Tar Spot and Southern Rust of corn, along with White Mold in soybeans, demonstrating the power of early airborne pathogen detection to provide growers with timely, actionable disease intelligence for more crop management decisions.

MN Corn Research & Promotion Council

"Having the data right at your fingertips is perfect because that gives me a chance to either spend $25/acre or save it."