The information and recommendations in this newsletter are applicable to North Carolina and may not apply in other areas.
The information and recommendations in this newsletter are applicable to North Carolina and may not apply in other areas.
With the financial support of soybean producers and USDA, soybean rust (SBR) has been monitored, and continues to be monitored in locations to the south of North Carolina. See the website at http://www.sbrusa.net for an update of which counties are currently being scouted, and which of them have confirmed rust this year. The only known active sites at this time are on kudzu in southern Georgia, northern Florida, Alabama, and as of today, Texas. Soybean rust has also been found in Mexico, but whether it is still active is still unknown. Many of the SBR infected kudzu sites in Georgia were frozen back by recent weather. Some sites have been or will be destroyed before long, but as more people look - more sites are found. There is still the possibility that many sites with active infections will still succumb to freezing weather yet this winter. The activity in eradicating active infection sites is limited. There is no consensus among the experts as to whether this is actually feasible. Some argue that there aren’t enough warm bodies available to locate and eliminate all potential sites infected with SBR.
Is there more kudzu infected with SBR than last year? - Probably.
Will this increase the threat of SBR on soybean in 2006? - Probably.
How big a threat is the rust on old kudzu leaves (last year’s growth)? – No one really knows. We would assume that infections on old leaves would lead to infections on new leaves as kudzu leafs out. This may or may not be the case. Based on what we have seen so far on soybean, rust was seldom found on soybeans that weren’t already in the reproductive stage, even when plots at earlier stages of development were located next to them. Not much kudzu infected with SBR was found last year, and new growth may be less susceptible than old growth.
Sentinel Plots in 2006
Plans are for approximately the same number of sentinel plots in 2006 as in 2005 and these will mostly be in or near the same locations as last years. We will be contacting sentinel plot coordinators soon about details on sentinel plots. More intense sampling will be requested, but we plan to provide coordinators with FEDEX prepaid mailers to send samples to the lab and provide more support in scouting.
Source: Steve Koenning and Jim Dunphy, North Carolina State University
Employment and program opportunities are offered to all people regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.
Last modified on February 28, 2006 by Stephen J. Toth, Jr.