More soybean rust in Arkansas
Aug 20, 2009 10:17 AM
On the Wednesday evening, several new locations of low-incidence Asian soybean rust were reported in Arkansas’ Chicot County.
The first find in the extreme southeast county was on Aug. 11 (see Asian soybean rust in Arkansas) and the disease has not been found outside the county’s borders. The new finds have not triggered blanket fungicide applications.
In an e-mail update, Scott Monfort, Arkansas Extension plant pathologist, says “since the initial confirmation of soybean rust in state, we have intensively scouted the southeast part of the state and have not seen any evidence of the disease spreading outside of Chicot County at this time.
“With this in mind, we have located several more fields in Chicot County near the Lakeport area with soybean rust. The good news is the disease is still at very low levels and has only been found in late R6 to R8 soybeans.
“We are not recommending an automatic fungicide application at this time due to the low disease incidence level.
“We will revisit the confirmed locations along with other fields in the area to determine if the disease is continuing to develop and/or beginning to spread. I would encourage growers, agents, and consultants to send in samples from suspect fields to the Lonoke Diagnostic Lab or the Monticello Lab.
“Since soybeans are growing at a rapid pace throughout the state, we would like to ask county Extension agents and all interested growers and consultants to send in samples” to the aforementioned labs.
“We will continue to update you on a regular basis on any new developments of soybean rust via e-mail or through the soybean rust hotline at (866) 641-1847. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Scott Monfort (870) 659-0648 or Jeremy Ross (501) 944-0621.”
