Field library

Brown Leaf Spot

A fungus that makes small round or oval brown spots on the leaves, each with a grey middle and a dark edge. It bites hardest in poor, thirsty or hungry soil, especially where the crop is short of nitrogen and potash. In a bad attack the grains get spotted too and stay light and discoloured.

How to scout

Look at the older leaves in the weakest and driest patches of the field for brown spots the size of a sesame seed with a pale middle, and check the panicles later for spotted grain.