Midway through my maize farming journey I have already encountered some quite intriguing challenges aimed at destroying the overall harvest that I was expecting at the end of all the work, weeds, pest, and diseases damage crops at quite a serious speed that would make it difficult to control them if a little more time was given before action is taken on these.

Right now I am struggling with two of the three weeds and pests, and it would be wise to handle both at the early stage before things eventually get out of hand, cause both can quickly get out of control if left unchecked.

When you zoom into these images, you will find out that more damage has been done already, and it only takes a close look to actually notice what's going on.

🦗🐛Pest: silent destroyers

I call them silent destroyers because most of the pest that are known to destroy maize at this stage are mostly so small that we hardly see them, most times it is the mark that is behind that is noticed then fact checks will be done based on the pattern of damage to find out the kind of pest that is at work.

The leaf where photosynthesis takes place, an important part of the plant cycle, has been eaten so badly that sometimes the growing cobs also become a target at some point.

We handle situations like this one in the picture using pesticides, as the name implies, it was generally engineered to control pests.

Next, we have weeds

☘️☘️ The Weed War Isn't Over

I call it the weed war because it feels like one at some point to every farmer and it is a war that you can't give up on if you are to obtain any kind of results from the months of hard work you are putting into the farm, the weed in this image might be looking less harmful right now and you might just decide to let it be for week or so, well that's the thing with they appear unharmful at first but then it takes over the farm without any notice within that very short period and before you know it weeding it becomes difficult, and applying selective herbicide can only be done by one who knows about it before the herbicide damages the maize plants as well, the fact that it is selective doesn't mean it can't affect the maize if a mistake is made when applying it.

🧠 Final thoughts

We need to take matters like this with serious urgency if we are to be able to maximize our yields to the very quantity that it needs to give.