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White mold’s late arrival minimized crop losses

A University of Wisconsin plant pathologist says many farmers found white mold developing in their soybeans much later than usual.  Dr. Damon Smith tells Brownfield it’s all because of the weather. “The dry weather throughout at least much of the southern third (of Wisconsin) here had folks a little bit fooled because they figured, well, you know, there’s no chance of white mold, and then things did start to get a little more ripe for the pathogen as we approached the R3 or beginning of pod set.”

Smith says he was alerting farmers there might be a late epidemic, but some farmers thought he was joking.  Smith says the later onset of white mold in many fields caused fewer problems. “The tradeoff there is it didn’t have as much time to cause huge amounts of damage in terms of yield reduction. It certainly took a little bit off the yield and caused some headaches for some farmers here.”

Smith says the drier summer did appear to help keep white mold problems more in check this growing season.  He says when the weather conditions did change, their free Sporecaster smartphone app was able to predict when conditions were right for developing the disease.