Crop health is a year-round concern, with changing seasons and environmental factors influencing disease patterns. Late-season diseases, often caused by soilborne pathogens, pose a significant threat, and in-season fungicides can't always control them. The solution? Year-round scouting.
Understanding which soilborne diseases affect your crop is essential for long-term planning. However, time is a limiting factor in pinpointing the cause of plant sickness in your fields.
The Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic faces challenges, especially as the growing season progresses. To ensure an accurate diagnosis, it's crucial to provide plant tissue that includes both living and diseased parts. This "zone of transition" is where pathogen identification is most likely to succeed. Dead tissue is of little use, as microbes take over quickly.
In the ideal scenario, season-long scouting detects early senescence in plants. As long as they're not completely dead, these early-senescing plants can be diagnosed with a disease. Armed with this knowledge, you can plan for the future by selecting the right crop varieties to genetically suppress late-season diseases.
On the flip side, relying on post-harvest observations and samples from underperforming areas yields limited insights. Accurate diagnosis is the linchpin for effective action.
Remember, many soilborne late-season diseases exhibit similar aboveground symptoms in soybeans. Accurate diagnosis is your surefire way to protect future yields.
To secure your crop's future, submit samples to the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic, following the submission guidelines. Download, fill out, and include a sample submission form with your sample. Don't forget to share photos via email (pidc@iastate.edu).
Embrace season-long scouting. It's your proactive defense against the uncertainties of crop health. Act now, and save later.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-luc-pouliot
Categories: Iowa, Crops