What Happened to Soybean Rust?
– Anne Dorrance Soybean rust was found in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama on kudzu leaves until the hard freeze that took place in mid to late February 2007. Texas also had one soybean field positive for rust back in February, but this field was harvested and rust can no longer be found there. Visits to the public website http://www.sbrusa.net will see some counties are red, others are a red/hatch combination. This is why some of you are hearing that rust was there and then it was gone. The host, kudzu, was by frost and it has not been re-infected yet. The only site positive for kudzu in northern Florida is Jacksonville. Last week, Alabama was reporting dry conditions. In other words we are back to square one. On the public website, green boxes indicate that active scouting is taking place in those counties. Sentinel plots of soybean and other hosts have been planted and the scouting and monitoring of soybean rust has started. Based on requests, for the 2007 season, we will have a short
