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Charcoal rot among key challenges for Upper Midwest soybean growers in 2025

Growers in the Upper Midwest dealt with several soybean diseases this year.

Stine Seed agronomist Susan Hart covers Minnesota and the Dakotas and says harsh spring conditions made crops vulnerable.

“They got beat up so hard right when those beans were coming out of the ground that really just set up a great situation for some diseases to really cause some problems this year for us.”

She tells Brownfield one of the diseases was charcoal rot.

“Generally it infects right when those beans are coming out of the ground, but it incubates so long that we don’t see it really rear its head until we’re into flowering. And it just overall stunts that whole plant because it comes in right at that crown.”

Hart says growers can identify charcoal rot by scraping the crown of the soybean near ground level.

“You’ll see a lot of that black tissue right at the surface, and you’re just going to see an overall stunting of that plant because it is coming in at that ground level similar to like you would see with a root disease.”

University of Minnesota Extension specialists say the best way to manage charcoal rot is by planting stress-tolerant or full season soybean varieties, managing irrigation to avoid drought stress, reducing excessive seeding rates, and practicing crop rotation with non-host crops.