Nebraska Extension’s Post

Transcript

Hi, my name is Dylan Mangel, Plant Pathologist with Nebraska Extension. And this week's agronomy update is brought to you by the Nebraska Soybean Board. So we're coming down to the end of the season now we've had growers with with good looking fields and a lot of the state. But the end of the season is when a lot of the plant diseases really show up and field start to show some of that damage related to some of the root issues or else fully or pathogens that that may have been spreading earlier in the season. 1 of the things that growers might be seeing at this point in the season is damage from a nematode. Called the soybean cyst nematode and this is actually the number one yield limiting pathogen of soybeans in the Midwest. The soybean cyst nematode is basically a parasite that lives on the roots of the soybean or or in the soil during the off season. It then moves to those roots, parasitizes them and then reproduces on them, basically sapping energy from those plants as they as they try to grow, yield and complete their life cycle. One of the signs that you might have this in your field is stunted plants if you see patches. You might have nematodes there causing those to be stunted, but a big problem with soybean cyst nematode is often you can have yield loss, in some cases up to 30% with no above ground symptoms. So even if your soybean plants look good, there's potential for them to be losing some level of yield without any knowledge that it's there. So if you think you might have some of this yield loss, the first step towards figuring that out is soil testing. Many states, including Nebraska, have free testing programs for any growers in the state. Submit samples to a lab to be verified if there's the soybean systemate there and often to provide a count or some sort of number to tell you how bad that problem is. In Nebraska I said that program is free and that's actually supported by the Nebraska Soybean Board through checkoff dollars. So once you've identified that there is soybean cyst nematode, you really need to manage it at any level. First is just rotation to a non host crop. Thankfully in Nebraska corn is a non host crop. So rotating between corn and soybeans is the first step in in. Keeping that level down. Now when you do plant soybean in that field, again, make sure you're selecting a variety with some type of resistance. There's two common resistance sources. One is called Pi 88788. The second most common one is called Peking. Pi 88788 has diminished and effectiveness over time while peeking has better background soybean varieties. The last thing you could do for management is talk to your local advisors about a potential nematode protectant seed treatment, especially if you have soybean cyst nematode at higher. Levels, If you're finishing out a season right now and you know you have soybean cyst nematode there, one thing you can do to help that is make sure those plants have enough water. We don't recommend overwatering, but definitely don't water stress those plants during the stages at which they need it the most. The other thing I'd recommend is make sure you take good notes on where you have soybean cyst nematode. That'll be important going into harvest and making future management decisions because you want to make sure you're not harvesting those fields or working dirt in those fields in any way that's going to move it to different. Field so you can kind of plan your harvest order and in your your future planting and and field working order in a way that's going to keep that soil where it is and not move it to uninfected fields. If you would like more information on soybean cyst Nematode 2 resources for you are cropwatch. unl.edu and also the SCN coalition.com. Thank you for watching this week's agronomy update brought to you by the Nebraska Soybean Board.