Seed treatments important for Ohio’s poorly drained soils
February 1, 2016
From: Ohio’s Country Journal
By Anne Dorrance and Pierce Paul, Ohio State University Extension
Much of Ohio’s soybean production ground is on soils with poor to fair drainage, high clay content, and reduced tillage systems. Any one of these factors alone or in combination contributes to the environmental conditions that favor infection of seeds and seedlings by watermolds. Reduced tillage systems favor pathogen build-up in the very place that the seed is planted each year. Both soybean and corn are attacked by a great diversity of Pythium spp.; some of which are favored by cool, wet soil conditions and others by warmer but also wet soil conditions. Of course for soybean, Phytophthora sojae can be recovered from all of Ohio soils and this is favored by warmer temperatures and wet soils. True fungi, Fusarium spp. and Rhizoctonia solani, are also pathogens of soybean and corn, but for these the amount of inoculum that is present in the field and adequate moisture for pathogen growth is all that is needed to favor infection of both corn and soybean.
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