Thinking About Applying A Fungicide To Hail-Damaged Crops?

Jul 14, 2017

By Connie Strunk

Figure 1. A soybean field West of White damaged by hail on July, 11, 2017.

The recent storms in East South Dakota brought along rain, high wind, and in some cases hail. Some corn and soybean fields have heavy hail damage (Figure 1). With the hail that parts of Brookings and Codington counties received, some growers are wondering if a fungicide application is needed to protect their hail damaged crops.

Do post-hail fungicide applications increase yields?

In Illinois, research conducted on corn using simulated hail damage did not show significant yield increases from fungicide applications of Headline, Quadris, or Quilt. Similarly, research conducted in Wisconsin under natural hail events showed that Headline on corn (at R2 stage of growth) and Headline, Quilt, and Stratego on soybeans (at R3 stage of growth) also did not result in increased yield. These studies indicate no yield response as a result of fungicide application on hail damaged crops.

What diseases should you watch for?

Bacterial diseases, which mainly infect plants through wounds, may be elevated due to hail damage. These include bacterial pustule and bacterial blight on soybean and Goss’s wilt on corn. Fungicides do not offer protection against these bacterial diseases.

When are fungicides warranted?

Applying fungicides on hail damaged plants should only be warranted if there are significant fungal diseases developing on these plants.

"Fungicides protect the yield potential of plants if significant diseases are present but do not improve the yield potential of crops," Strunk said.

She explained that both corn and soybeans should grow out of slight hail injury, unless the growing point was damaged.

Scout and apply a fungicide when soybean is between R1 and R3 and corn between VT and R1 and when significant disease pressure is developing and weather is favorable for disease development.

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”