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Will Fungicides Help Heal Hail-Damaged Crop Plants?
Growers often ask if a fungicide helps heal the plant. The only data we have is on sugarbeets. Several years ago, an experiment by a sugarbeet extension specialist, injured beets with a harvest flail, followed this with sprinkler irrigation, then applied various fungicides (copper, mancozeb, Super Tin), liquid fertilizer, micronutrients and combinations. No treatment enhanced recovery. In another trial they saw no differences after they applied copper fungicide to a hail-damaged field.
Similar results might be expected with other crops, such as dry beans. It is natural to want to help the plants recover, but we have no data indicating that this is cost effective.
Use of a fungicide may be needed after a storm IF conditions of high humidity and dew favor disease. Most leaf pathogens (except white mold) do not need wounds for infection. For example, extension specialists have never seen more sugarbeet leafspot in the wheel tracks in spray trials. Wounding and wet foliage favor rapid spread and infection of bacterial pathogens, such as the bacterial blights of dry beans. Fungicides are not effective in control of bacteria and it is likely the infection would already have occurred before a fungicide could be applied.
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