Foliar Sprays to Control Worms on Early and Late Sweet Corn, 1995

Sweet corn was planted in two adjacent fields on 18 May at the Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Painter, VA. One field was planted in the early maturing cultivar ‘Seneca Horizon’, and the other field was planted in the late maturing cultivar ‘Silver Queen’. Foliar sprays were applied using a single nozzle boom backpack sprayer delivering 60 gal water/acre at 40 psi. Sprays were initiated at 50% silking and the application dates for each cultivar are listed in the tables The ‘Silver Queen’ received one less application than the ‘Seneca Horizon’ due to a storm on the last scheduled application date. Evaluation criteria consisted of counts of the numbers of fresh market (no damage), processing (less than 1.5 inch tip damage), and cull ears (greater than 1.5 inch tip damage and/or damage elsewhere on the ear) in a 12 ear subsample from each plot. The numbers of live worms of each species in the 12 ear subsamples were also recorded.