Dr. Ahmad Fakhoury, Professor of Plant Pathology at Southern Illinois University, and Dr. Nick Seiter, Assistant Professor and Field Crops Entomologist at University of Illinois, recently provided updates on the Soybean Stem Pests project.

Stem diseases update from Dr. Fakhoury:

“The diseased plant material collected during the last growing season has been processed. Potential fungal pathogens have been isolated, and the isolated fungi have been partially identified using microscopy and molecular tools. We plan to collect more diseased plant material during this growing season, complete the identification of the fungal isolates collected so far, and confirm the ability of some of them to cause disease. Our collection of pathogens (~2,500 isolates) along with the data provided to us by growers, is invaluable for assessing the impact of these pathogens on soybean production in Illinois.”

Cercospora isolated from soybean seeds.

Diaporthe isolated from soybean seeds.

Insect pests update from Dr. Seiter:

“All field work for the statewide insect pest survey, led by Kelly Estes, is occurring during these summer months. This survey will assess dectes stem borer adults and look for the presence of soybean gall midge. The Seiter laboratory will perform stem sampling every other week at the Ewing demonstration Center to assess dectes stem borer phenological development.

I’m excited that we don’t currently have soybean gall midge in Illinois. Learning more about the distribution of dectes stem borer has been valuable to both our research program and our extension efforts. In addition to informing farmers of their risk for this particular insect pest, we are much more confident in our ability to place effective field experiments to study management practices.”

Stay tuned to ILSoyAdvisor.com for results from the 2024 growing season survey later this fall. You can learn more about this project here: https://fieldadvisor.org/soy-stem-pests/