Dr. Anne Dorrance provided great information about Sudden Death Syndrome in the Summer I Magazine. Read below to get the full details and completed list of methods to manage this disease:

1. Choose varieties with high levels of resistance to this pathogen. Know your companies scores and what value really means resistance. One of the more rewarding studies that we have cooperated in over the years is with the North Central Soybean Research Program SDS Working Group. We have evaluated new germplasm in the greenhouse and in the field and helped to identify new lines. It is also fun to go from a study where initially more than half of the lines in the study developed disease to last year, where only the susceptible checks developed disease. Pretty cool, resistance is available and it is very effective.

2. Don’t push the planting. This fungus is favored by wet cool conditions, so plant fields with a history of SDS last and under drier conditions.

3. Don’t compact fields. Avoid planting and harvesting on soils when conditions are too wet. Compaction helps keep the soils moist for a longer period of time, providing for a longer time for infection.

4. Manage soybean cyst nematode, this isn’t the case for all locations, but in Ohio and where we get our best field screening results – there is SCN present. Crop rotation, selecting resistant varieties, managing soil pH and fertility to optimize soybean plant health – also help to manage SDS. You get a two-for-one when you put these management plans into practice.

5. Don’t be fooled by brown stem rot, Diaporthe stem canker or white mold, other late season yield robbers. SDS and brown stem rot look very similar; the key difference is the color of the pith. Cut plants open and parts of the pith is chocolate brown in brown stem rot. In case you were wondering, yes; I have found plants with both pathogens.