Symptoms:

• Long cigar-shape grey-green to tan-coloured lesions on lower leaves.
• Tan lesions are slender and oblong tapering at the ends ranging in size 1 to 6 inches.
• Lesions run parallel to leaf margins and they coalesce and cover enter leaf.
• Spores are produced on the underside of leaf.
• Below the lesions, fungus giving the dusty black/green fuzz appearance
• Leaves become greyish-green and brittle, resembling leaves killed by frost .

Pathogen :

• Mycelium septate, branched and brownish.
• Conidiophores simple, cylindrical and septate.
• Conidia are olive grey and spindle shaped, curved and elongated with one to nine septa.

Favourable Conditions :

• Wet humid cool weather typically found later in the growing season.

Survival and Mode of Spread :

• Survives on infected plant debris.
• Windblown spores spread the disease.
• Conidia are transformed into thick-walled resting spores called chlamydospores.

                  

Long cigar - shape grey-green to tan - coloured lesions on leaves

Management

• Burn or bury the Infected maize stubbles.
• Spray mancozeb or zineb @ 2-4 g/l or propiconazole 25% EC @ 1ml/l on 35 and 50 DAS

Exserohilum turcicum : Conidiophore with conidia