By Billy Griffin
The University of Georgia has been monitoring for Asian Soybean Rust through a Soybean Sentinel Plot Program. Soybean plots have been planted throughout Georgia and are checked for soybean rust on a regular basis to monitor for the appearance and spread of soybean rust. Soybean rust has been found in several sentinel plots throughout Georgia. It has been found in the following counties: Decatur, Tift, Cook, Colquitt, and Burke County. It has been spreading throughout the South from the West to the East and has been found in Texas, Arkansas, Mississipi, Alabama, and Georgia. Soybean rust has been found in the Southwest and the Southeast part of Georgia in Sentinel plots and could potentially be anywhere in the Coastal Plains but is considered to be at low levels. It is important to note that there is a sentinel plot in Toombs county right reside the Tattnall County line at the Vidalia Onion Research Center and that Soybean Rust has not been found in the plot to date. Extension Pathologist Dr. Bob Kemerait recently made a few comments regarding soybean rust.
“Though the disease is finally spreading (and rapidly), we are seeing the SPREAD but the BUILD-UP is lagging behind. That is, the disease is widely but thinly scattered at the moment. With time, the disease will build until frost.
Growers with soybeans that are full-seed/R6 or close to it are “safe”. Soybean fields with pods where seeds still have weeks to develop until they fill the pod are at risk.
For growers who spray now, late in the season, even use of tebuconazole is likely to be of benefit.”
Soybean Rust