STORAGE LIFE OF SHELLED CORN TREATED WITH A FUNGICIDE

Carbon dioxide evolution was used to determine the storage life at 20 degrees C of 22% moisture, wet basis, shelled corn treated with 0, 15, and 20 ppm of the fungicide iprodione, with and without a nonionic su rfactant. Corn lots included three levels of mechanical kernel damage - 3, 14, and 25%. The fungicide increased storage life, compared to th e 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 tre atments. 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% dr y matter loss.