Striped Corn Syndrome

        As a continuation of the striped corn we have been seeing in Central Nebraska. Jennifer Chaky of the UNL Plant Diagnostic Clinic examined the corn from the field pictured below.  She reported that the sample was negative to Stewart’s Wilt based on an Elisa Test of the tissue and also negative to Goss’s Wilt based on the results on selective media. Additional tests produced an isolation of bacteria from the tissue which appears to be Pseudomonas syringae based on the biolog test.
        Further tests indicated that the symptoms on the leaves may be caused by Xanthomonas campestris, which can cause leaf spotting or striping symptoms.  The plant may outgrow the symptoms if they are mostly on the leaves, the weather becomes dryer and warmer, and the disease does not continue to spread.

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Yellow Soybean Syndrome

        Although the soybean crop seems to be a little slow in getting growing and developing a canopy this year, there are some excellent looking soybean fields. Unfortunately, there seems to be more that are looking pretty mediocre. There are areas in the fields where the beans are yellow with spotting on the leaves and very stunted growth.  We sent one sample to the UNL Plant Diagnostic Clinic and received this report.
        Bacterial Blight, Psuedomonas savastanoi pv glycinea was found on the sample, based on the symptoms and the bacterial streaming from the tissue.  The disease can survive in crop residue or on the seeds. The disease can spread during wind storms and cool wet weather favors development.  The disease is often slowed by dry weather.  The disease is managed through resistant plant varieties, residue management and using disease-free seed.
        Although there may be several things that may be contributing to the poor soybeans that we are seeing, we believe that the Bacterial Blight is involved in many of them.