Asian soybean rust is looking a bit worse than it has in previous years, apparently because the mild winter let it survive, according to the Louisiana State University AgCenter.
This means farmers may have to act earlier to control the fungus, said plant pathologist Clayton Hollier.
This year, the fungus has been found earlier than in the past, on kudzu leaves that made it through the winter.
“It overwinters in kudzu all the time,” Hollier said. “But we have indications that we have more soybean rust overwintering here than we’ve ever had.”
Another first is finding rust on young soybean plants that grew from seed spilled last year.
“I don’t want to alarm people, but this is the most advanced situation that we’ve seen this time of year with rust,” Hollier said.
After the first specimens were found, scientists looked farther south and found fungus in seven coastal parishes and as far north as East Baton Rouge. It also was found in Terrebonne, Lafourche, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Mary, St. John and Vermilion parishes.
Observers have not found the rust on soybeans planted this year, but Hollier said a lot of acreage is yet to be planted.
The disease is known to attack more than 100 host plants, with soybeans and kudzu the most susceptible.
Even if the disease gets an early start this year, growers have several chemicals that are very effective, Hollier said.
Asian soybean rust was first identified in Japan in 1902. It spread to South America about 2000.
It was first found in North America in 2004, in a field on the Ben Hur Research Farm near LSU. Scientists believe that winds from Hurricane Ivan early that fall carried it to Louisiana.
Topics Louisiana Education Universities
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