Soybean harvest in Michigan is quickly approaching the halfway point. As we get later in the season, Josh Whelan, Pioneer field agronomist, is noticing some stalk diseases.
“There’s anthracnose in soybeans that’s similar to anthracnose in corn,” he says. “You see these black splotches on the stem later in the season and it can infect a wide host of things. On beans, it rots the stem and you can actually have some lodging do that.”
It can also have an impact on yield.
“This year with the warm, humid environment we had, you see these black splotches, but it can also infect the pods and can reduce your seed size or cause the soybeans to abort the seeds all together,” says Whelan.
He adds that there are ways for growers to reduce anthracnose, including fungicides and crop rotations.
“You can spray it with a fungicide between R3 and R5, pretty similar to when you’d spray for some of your white molds to keep it down,” says Whelan.
He’s also been seeing pod and stem blight this season.
“This is where the plant loos water stained—like if you leave a set glass on a wooden table where it has those water rings—that’s what it looks like on the inside of the soybean stem,” says Whelan. “Again, something that’ll infect your stalk quality on the bean. It can cause some rotting and make it a little harder to harvest those soybeans later in the season.”
For more information on late season soybean diseases and best management practices, talk to your local Pioneer agronomist.
