As the 2026 soybean harvest wraps up across Indiana, growers have an excellent opportunity to assess one of the most damaging and often overlooked threats to soybean production: soybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines). SCN is the leading yield-limiting pathogen of soybean in the United States, causing an estimated $1.5 billion in annual losses. One of the biggest challenges in managing SCN is that infected soybean plants may appear healthy even when significant yield losses are occurring. If your corn yields have been steadily increasing while soybean yields remain stagnant, SCN could be one of the contributing factors. Even if you have never observed symptoms of SCN in your fields, that does not mean the nematode is absent. Fall soil sampling is a simple and effective way to determine whether SCN is present and assess its population density. Why Should Indiana Growers Be Concerned About SCN? SCN is widespread in[Read More…]
111 articles tagged "Plant Diseases".
Red crown rot symptoms are continuing to progress across Indiana, and additional affected fields are being identified as the season advances.
Foliar diseases are becoming increasingly evident in corn fields across Indiana, with gray leaf spot emerging as the most prevalent disease thus far this season.
Continued scouting of both corn and soybean fields remains critical for making timely and informed disease management decisions.
Red crown rot of soybean, caused by Calonectria Ilicicola, continues to be a concern in Indiana.
Corn growth stages are quite variable across Indiana but several areas with early planted corn are reaching tassel.
Indiana has received quite a bit of rain in the last few months, and fields are flooded throughout the state. How can you determine if you just have a flooding injury or a seedling disease has taken hold? Standing water leads to root suffocation as roots are oxygen-deprived and CO2 builds up. Digging up a few plants in the area can help determine the issue. If the outer root tissue sloughs off and reveals the white hair-like core of the root, then there may only be a flooding injury. If the roots appear rotted, brown and mushy, then a root rot may have infected the stressed plants. Flooding also kills the nitrogen-fixing bacteria, so you can cut open the soybean nodules to see if they have lost their healthy pink color. In contrast, seedling diseases, such as Phytophthora root and stem rot, can leave the roots brown and rotted, but[Read More…]
We are continuing to track the activity of tar spot.
Questions about tar spot management were already beginning to surface as corn planting nears completion across Indiana.
Wheat development continues across Indiana. In central Indiana, wheat is currently flowering (Feekes 10.5), while wheat in our southern Indiana research plots has advanced to the dough stage (Feekes 11.2).
