ILLINOIS FIELD CROPS APPLICATOR MAIN EXAM TEST
2025/2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Stink Bugs (Pentatomidae) - ✔✔Eat the pods of soybeans
✔✔Corn Earworm - ✔✔Eats the pods of soybeans
✔✔Greatest planted acres in TX yearly - ✔✔Cereals 7,750,000
✔✔Greatest crop income to the state TX - ✔✔Cotton $880,983,000
✔✔Highest risk in dollars/ acre in TX - ✔✔Potatoes $2,904.28/ac
✔✔Leaf Spot - ✔✔patches of disease or other damage on plant foliage - PEANUTS
most common disease
✔✔Web Blotch - ✔✔Most difficult to control in peanuts
✔✔Sclerotinia Blight - ✔✔Grows near the ground, and causes stem shedding - small
white cotton-like tufts
✔✔Pythium and Rhizoctonia Fungi - ✔✔Both cause pod rot in peanuts
✔✔Tomato Spotted Wilt - ✔✔(Virus) most important insect transported disease, no
pesticides can control this virus. Yellowing and wilt quickly then die - PEANUTS
✔✔Root Knot Nematodes - ✔✔bore into roots and cause the roots to have a swollen,
knotted appearance - there are no resistant plants and this is a serious problem in
PEANUTS and COTTON
✔✔Foliage Disease in Peanuts - ✔✔Warm Temps and High Humidity causes higher
disease
✔✔Charcoal Rot - ✔✔appears in HOT and DRY weather - SOYBEANS and SORGHUM
-internal "shredding" of infected stalks at and above soil line
- fungal structures (sclerotia) inside affected tissue
✔✔Cotton Root Rot - ✔✔most devastating disease of fruit crops in Texas that affects
crops in the Rosaceae family- appears in the early summer and appears in circular
patterns/areas in the field - SOYBEANS
✔✔Frog Eye Leaf Spot - ✔✔Late season, lesions on leaf tan or gray with a narrow RED
border - SOYBEANS
, ✔✔Aerial Web Blight - ✔✔Water-soaked lesions or spots on leaves, dark brown centers
dries and falls off - severe defoliation -SOYBEANS
✔✔Target Spot - ✔✔Reddish-brown circles vary in SIZE, large spots have concentric
rings
✔✔Diaporthe Stem Blight - ✔✔Occurs near maturity, black fungus in linear rows that
effects pods that shrivel up and die. *Sterile* -WET conditions lead to early harvesting -
SOYBEANS
✔✔Anthracnose - ✔✔Effects stems and pods of SOYBEANS and SORGHUM, this
fungus carry's over onto seeds therefore is a seed borne fungus
✔✔Bacterial Leaf Spot - ✔✔Occurs during cool wet weather and appears
yellowish/brownish in angular spots - SOYBEANS
✔✔Soybean Mosaic Virus - ✔✔(Virus) Vector infected seed, the most common virus in
SOYBEANS
✔✔Downy Mildew - ✔✔Grayish downy tufts on LOW surfaces - SORGHUM and
SOYBEANS
✔✔Head Mold - ✔✔Develops when it's humid and harvest stays in the field -
SORGHUM
✔✔Fusarium Stalk Rot - ✔✔fungal growth in the pit (base of stalks) - affects mature
sorghum plants
✔✔Sorghum Ergot - ✔✔Seeps into the nectar of the sorghum and affects the ovaries
✔✔Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus - ✔✔(Virus) Lighter colored plant with mottling, stunted
and smaller heads/ears - SORGHUM AND CORN
✔✔Northern Corn Leaf Blight - ✔✔Large (cigar-shaped), tan lesions on leaves - look
like frost/ drought damage. Hybrid plants can control this fungus. Happens on the lower
leaves - MOST SEVERE BEFORE SILKING
✔✔Stalk Rot - ✔✔Caused by a complex of bacterial and fungi that attack near maturity.
Occurs when there is high nitrogen and low potassium - CORN
✔✔Ear and Kernel Rots - ✔✔During HIGH rainfall- humid hot conditions, during silking
to harvest - appears as pink or green mold on ears - CORN
✔✔Southern Corn Rust - ✔✔Favored by high temps, small, round, orange pustules
2025/2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Stink Bugs (Pentatomidae) - ✔✔Eat the pods of soybeans
✔✔Corn Earworm - ✔✔Eats the pods of soybeans
✔✔Greatest planted acres in TX yearly - ✔✔Cereals 7,750,000
✔✔Greatest crop income to the state TX - ✔✔Cotton $880,983,000
✔✔Highest risk in dollars/ acre in TX - ✔✔Potatoes $2,904.28/ac
✔✔Leaf Spot - ✔✔patches of disease or other damage on plant foliage - PEANUTS
most common disease
✔✔Web Blotch - ✔✔Most difficult to control in peanuts
✔✔Sclerotinia Blight - ✔✔Grows near the ground, and causes stem shedding - small
white cotton-like tufts
✔✔Pythium and Rhizoctonia Fungi - ✔✔Both cause pod rot in peanuts
✔✔Tomato Spotted Wilt - ✔✔(Virus) most important insect transported disease, no
pesticides can control this virus. Yellowing and wilt quickly then die - PEANUTS
✔✔Root Knot Nematodes - ✔✔bore into roots and cause the roots to have a swollen,
knotted appearance - there are no resistant plants and this is a serious problem in
PEANUTS and COTTON
✔✔Foliage Disease in Peanuts - ✔✔Warm Temps and High Humidity causes higher
disease
✔✔Charcoal Rot - ✔✔appears in HOT and DRY weather - SOYBEANS and SORGHUM
-internal "shredding" of infected stalks at and above soil line
- fungal structures (sclerotia) inside affected tissue
✔✔Cotton Root Rot - ✔✔most devastating disease of fruit crops in Texas that affects
crops in the Rosaceae family- appears in the early summer and appears in circular
patterns/areas in the field - SOYBEANS
✔✔Frog Eye Leaf Spot - ✔✔Late season, lesions on leaf tan or gray with a narrow RED
border - SOYBEANS
, ✔✔Aerial Web Blight - ✔✔Water-soaked lesions or spots on leaves, dark brown centers
dries and falls off - severe defoliation -SOYBEANS
✔✔Target Spot - ✔✔Reddish-brown circles vary in SIZE, large spots have concentric
rings
✔✔Diaporthe Stem Blight - ✔✔Occurs near maturity, black fungus in linear rows that
effects pods that shrivel up and die. *Sterile* -WET conditions lead to early harvesting -
SOYBEANS
✔✔Anthracnose - ✔✔Effects stems and pods of SOYBEANS and SORGHUM, this
fungus carry's over onto seeds therefore is a seed borne fungus
✔✔Bacterial Leaf Spot - ✔✔Occurs during cool wet weather and appears
yellowish/brownish in angular spots - SOYBEANS
✔✔Soybean Mosaic Virus - ✔✔(Virus) Vector infected seed, the most common virus in
SOYBEANS
✔✔Downy Mildew - ✔✔Grayish downy tufts on LOW surfaces - SORGHUM and
SOYBEANS
✔✔Head Mold - ✔✔Develops when it's humid and harvest stays in the field -
SORGHUM
✔✔Fusarium Stalk Rot - ✔✔fungal growth in the pit (base of stalks) - affects mature
sorghum plants
✔✔Sorghum Ergot - ✔✔Seeps into the nectar of the sorghum and affects the ovaries
✔✔Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus - ✔✔(Virus) Lighter colored plant with mottling, stunted
and smaller heads/ears - SORGHUM AND CORN
✔✔Northern Corn Leaf Blight - ✔✔Large (cigar-shaped), tan lesions on leaves - look
like frost/ drought damage. Hybrid plants can control this fungus. Happens on the lower
leaves - MOST SEVERE BEFORE SILKING
✔✔Stalk Rot - ✔✔Caused by a complex of bacterial and fungi that attack near maturity.
Occurs when there is high nitrogen and low potassium - CORN
✔✔Ear and Kernel Rots - ✔✔During HIGH rainfall- humid hot conditions, during silking
to harvest - appears as pink or green mold on ears - CORN
✔✔Southern Corn Rust - ✔✔Favored by high temps, small, round, orange pustules
