Virginia appears to have dodged the soybean rust bullet this season

Virginia probably has dodged the bullet in terms of Asian soybean rust (ASR) this season, based on an adisory issued today by state Extension personnel. Although ASR has turned up one county south of Virginia's southern state line with North Carolina, much of the state's crop is far enough along that the disease shouldn't be an economic factor.

Here's a portion of the advisory:

"Although the latest find is less than 100 miles from some southern Virginia soybean fields, we do not feel that a fungicide application should be made in Virginia at this time. The reason is that most of Virginia’s soybean crop is no longer at risk of suffering significant yield loss from rust. Soybeans in the R6 development stage (full sized seeds in the pods) will probably mature normally before rust affects a significant amount of the leaf surface. Our full-season crop is in this stage.

"Our maturity group 4 varieties, planted double-crop, are also in this stage. Only maturity group 5 soybeans planted in late June and July are still in the R5 stage (seed forming in the pod). The photo below was taken from a test at the TAREC in Suffolk, VA. Even the group 5 soybeans planted in July should advance to the R6 stage by early next week.

"If rust were to be found in Virginia, we might suggest spraying very-late-planted group 5 soybeans with decent yield potential; but, only if soybean rust was found in the immediate vicinity of the field in question. We re-emphasize that spraying after R6 will not likely benefit the crop, plus an application at this stage is off-label and illegal. Once again, we do not recommend spraying soybeans with fungicides for Asian Soybean Rust at this time."