In mid-June 2025, Spornado detected southern rust in areas where it rarely appears—earlier and in greater density than expected.
“Our client called us up, and they said, ‘Are you sure?’ Is your test working?’” says Kristine White, founder of Spornado.
She had her lab double-check, and indeed areas that never saw southern rust were seeing positive tests. This wasn’t just unusual—it signaled a broader shift in agricultural disease patterns, and the need for technology to help farmers adjust their management.
“Getting this knowledge, especially as diseases are showing up where they aren’t usually area, is important because we’re going to see more of this,” White says. “Farmers need to have information about what to spray and when to spray—and our Spornado samplers are an empowering tool.”
Left unchecked, southern rust can reduce yields by 10% to 30%, but in severe cases, the disease can cause up to 45% yield loss.
“Diseases move regions. Diseases don’t show up the same way every year. Farmers don’t want to spray unless there’s risk of the disease, and conversely, there’s huge value in knowing there is risk out there and you need to take action,” White says.
So far in 2026, she reports southern rust positives have started to show.
Who Is Spornado?
As an ag disease monitoring company, Spornado provides simple, solar-powered air samplers that collect airborne spores, which are then analyzed in partner labs. Results are delivered within 24 hours and include risk categories (high, medium, low).
For field-specific spray decisions, it’s recommended to have 1 sampler per 100 acres or quarter section. White says in applications with microclimates such as vineyards, the samplers need higher density.
The company is working in 20 crops in 23 countries.
“With six years under our belt, we have a massive data set, probably the largest in the world for fungal air diseases,” White says.
The main corn diseases monitored are Tar Spot, Southern Rust, northern corn leaf blight, and Fusarium. The service cost is about $2,000–$2,200 per sampler for a season monitoring the four corn diseases.
Turn Data Into Confidence: The Retailer Advantage
Retailers and crop advisers have been the key customers for the company so far. White says the product confirm confidence in a recommendation to spray.
“For example, white mold in soybeans is a big problem. Not every grower sprays for white mold, depending where you are geographically,” she says. “Having the Spornado result give that bit of extra information to inform the decision; there’s less guesswork in if they make the spray or not.”
The fungicide decision is still rooted in the disease triangle: pathogen, host, environment. And White points out this helps bring awareness when the pathogen is present and what’s the risk.
“Ideally, you want to be as preventative as possible in your disease management,” she says. “For instance, last year, when we detected tar spot, it started to give people the idea to be on the lookout. Look at your conditions, and be aware if your weather is conducive to fungal growth because now we know the inoculum is there. It’s putting this last little piece of the puzzle together in that disease triangle to get a better idea of risk.”
Picking The Right Fungicide, Resistance Testing
In addition to its monitoring capabilities, Spornado is also working on:
- Advanced disease forecasting incorporating weather, hybrid susceptibility and more
- Fungicide resistance testing
Spornado is applying AI and machine learning, supported by a government grant, to integrate spore data, weather models, and hybrid susceptibility for better disease forecasting.
One such project includes the government of Manitoba and potato growers and processors to give advanced alert for leaf blight.
“They kind of got together, put out samplers every year, and have agreed to share the information with the province. So if there is leaf blight found, the province will put out an alert–not a specific farm– to let people know.”
Spornado has also done work to understand the right fungicide resistance rate detected in some crops, for example apple scab.
“We can do a molecular test on the same sample to tell a grower whether or not that spore is resistant to the fungicides they want to use,” White says. “We did a two-year study with some researchers for FRAC group 11 fungicides. 100% of our samples came back with resistance. This was work for apple growers in Ontario who battle apple scab, and it highlights how limited the tools are.”
