Crazy Top
Symptoms:
- Extreme tillering (many tillers per plant), twisting, and rolling of top leaves
- The tassel may proliferate until it looks like a bundle of leafy structures
- Leaves of severely infected plants may be narrow and leathery as well as shortened with chlorotic stripes
- Symptoms will vary with time of infection
Pathogen Involved:
- Sclerophthora macrospore (an oomycete)\
- This pathogen is widespread throughout the United States.
- The pathogen infects multiple grass species.
Time of Occurrence:
- This disease starts when the whorl emerges on young plants.
- Disease develop most often in plants from the seedling to the four to five leaf stage that have been flooded for 24-48 hours.
- Infection also can occur when soil and water collects within the whorl.
Conditions Favoring Disease:
- Flooding
Disease Management:
- Soil drainage
- Avoid planting in wet, low areas