VIEW ARTICLE

Etiology

Grain Sink Size and Predisposition of Zea mays to Stalk Rot. J. L. Dodd, Plant pathologist, Cargill, Incorporated, Aurora Research Station, P.O. Box 470, Aurora, IL 60507; Phytopathology 70:534-535. Accepted for publication 10 December 1979. Copyright 1980 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-70-534.

Corn (Zea mays) plants with rotted stalks had more kernels than genetically identical neighboring plants with healthy stalks. This was observed in comparisons of adjacent rotted and healthy plants of 30 hybrids at many USA locations and in another study of seven hybrids in two plant populations in one location. Relationship of data to effects of rate of carbohydrate translocation to grain and roots, including the photosynthetic stress-translocation balance concept of predisposition of corn to stalk rots is discussed.