Storage Life of Shelled Corn Treated with a Fungicide

Abstract

Carbon dioxide evolution was used to determine the storage life at 20 C of 22% moisture, wet basis, shelled corn treated with 0, 15, and 20 ppm of the fungicide iprodione, with and without a nonionic surfactant. Corn lots included three levels of mechanical kernel damage 3, 14, and 25%. The fungicide increased storage life, compared to the control, at all treatment levels and was more effective on corn that had greater mechanical damage. For corn having 25% mechanical damage, fungicide treatments increased storage life 11.2 to 20.0%. There was no significant difference in amount of mold damage among fungicide treatments. However, most samples molded enough to deteriorate from U.S. grade no. 1 to U.S. grade nos. 4 or 5 by the time they reached 0.5% dry matter loss.