Soybean Disease

University of Kentucky Extension Specialist Dr. Carl Bradley recently sat down with us to answer our questions on frogeye leaf spot of soybean. Dr. Bradley is a featured speaker at this year’s Conservation Tillage Conference at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio on March 14-15.

Flooding injury occurs when soils are saturated for several days and anoxia develops.  The roots are killed, as are the nodules that are home to the nitrogen fixing bacteria. The field has an “interesting’ smell but the key symptoms of this injury are on the roots. Dig up a few plants – if it is flooding injury the outside of the root – the epidermis will be easily pulled off the root leaving the white center – looks like rat tails (Figure 1). In addition, the nodules will be gray and easily crushed.