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Red crown rot spread under investigation

A plant pathologist at the University of Kentucky says red crown rot is having a wider impact on midwestern soybean growers.

Carl Bradley says the fungal disease is spreading.

“It’s starting to pop up in different places and farmers that have been dealing with it in places like Illinois for a few years, and here in Kentucky for a couple of years, it can be pretty bad,” he says.

The disease, once only found in the deep south, has now been identified in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and most recently, Missouri.

Bradley says the cause of the spread is not known.

“We don’t really have answers for that right now.”  He says, “We do know it’s a soil borne pathogen and the way it would spread would be any way that soil would move.”

He tells Brownfield it can often be confused with sudden death syndrome, or SDS.

“So you really want to focus on the lower stems and roots.”  He says, “With red crown rot you’d have a reddish discoloration that would occur. This fungus also produces some fruiting bodies, kind of spherical, reddish orange structures that will form as well. You don’t always find those though.”

Bradley says many states are offering free testing of suspected red crown rot samples to help further study management of the disease.

AUDIO: Carl Bradley – University of Kentucky

Photo courtesy of Illinois Soybean Association

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