Field Study
Vitazyme on Corn – 2005-Pantego, North Carolina
Vitazyme significantly reduced the severity of Southern Corn Leaf Blight and Gray Leaf Spot infections in corn compared with an untreated check, while the use of a starter fertilizer (19-19-0) did not affect the severity of these two leaf diseases. Vitazyme also improved grain yield compared to the untreated check but there was no significant yield difference between the Vitazyme treatment and the starter treatment. In fact, the plots receiving the starter treatment tended to have higher yield compared to the Vitazyme treatment (226.7 vs 215.9 bu/acre). These results support the claim that Vitazyme helps stimulate the biochemical mechanisms that allow the corn plant to resist disease infection. While these diseases were not noted at this site until the late milk stage (R2-R3), it appears that the effects of the Vitazyme treatment resulted in an increase in grain yield. A yield increase was also observed when starter fertilizer was applied despite the fact that there were no improvements in disease resistance.