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The purpose of Tarspotter is to assist farmers in making fungicide management decisions for tar spot disease on corn. The best time to manage tar spot is during V10 to R3 growth stage. Tar spot fungal spores which infect corn, leading to the development of tar spot. University research has indicated that the appearance of Tar spot fungus can be predicted using several variables including weather. Based on this research, models have been developed to forecast the risk of Tar spot fungus being present in a corn field. Farmers can easily input site-specific information about their corn field into this app, which combines this information with the research-based models to predict the best timing for tar spot treatment.
Tarspotter uses GPS coordinates to determine if weather has been favorable for the development of Tar spot fungus during corn flowering in a specific field. Models in the app use real-time weather to predict the dates of favorable conditions for most corn growing regions. Based on these predictions and crop phenology, a site-specific risk prediction is generated.