These fluctuating temperatures that we have had this spring where we go from snow days to short days provides some opportunities to get the crews out and enjoy some nice weather. Sampling for Soybean Cyst Nematode is fine to do in the spring, especially in years where the ground thaws early.
It is becoming increasingly important in Ohio to know your numbers. Sounds like a cholesterol warning doesn’t it? In the case of SCN, less than 500 eggs per cup of soil and keeping it under 1,000 is what we need to shoot for on some fields. Non-detectable levels are like gold.
If you haven’t tested in a while, here are some guidelines of fields to be sure to target:
1. Fields which are consistently low yielding, always below the county average
2. Continuous soybean fields
3. Fields with a healthy crop of purple dead nettle, shepherds purse, or planted to a legume cover crop. These can all serve as additional hosts to SCN and especially with a warm winter there will be some increase in nematode numbers.
If you have yield maps, especially for no-till farmers, target the low yielding pockets. SCN will stay in that one pocket, but the pocket will get larger over time with no-till. With cultivation, the pocket will get larger in the same direction that you till.
For a quick video on sampling for SCN check out OSU Dept of Plant Pathology Ph.D. Student Horacio Lopez Nicora’s take on “How to Properly Sample for Soybean Cyst Nematode: http://plantpath.osu.edu/about-us/multimedia
Only two labs in Ohio will accept samples:
Spectrum Analytic Inc
1087 Jamison Rd NW
Washington Court House, OH 43160
800-321-1562
740-335-1562
740-335-1104 fax
OSU C. Wayne Ellett Plant and Pest Diagnostic
Clinic ($15/sample)
8995 E Main St, Bldg 23
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068
614-292-5006