|
|
| |
| |
ALERT: Several green kudzu patches infected in AL; 1st rust in Mobile County in 2005
|
By Marilyn Cummins, Editor
StopSoybeanRust.com
12/27/2005 -- The first report of soybean rust in Mobile County, Alabama, was last week on the last two green leaves of a one-acre kudzu patch. Mobile County, in southwest Alabama, is the 33rd county in the state and 138th in the United States with soybean rust this year.
Ed Sikora, professor and Extension plant pathologist at Auburn University, said in the state commentary on www.sbrusa.net that the rust mentioned above was found on Dec. 21.
"We also detected rust on kudzu in two patches in Baldwin County, and one patch each in Conecuh and Clarke counties," he said. "Cold temperatures should kill most kudzu in south Alabama by mid-January. Rust has now been detected in 33 counties in Alabama and in a total of 20 kudzu patches."
AL pathologist finds several green, infected kudzu locations
Sikora provided more details in an e-mail circulated to a listserv sent to soybean rust specialists:
"On Dec. 20, I found a green, rust-infected, kudzu patch near the town of Evergreen in a protected area off the Interstate (and near a McDonalds). The site is approximately 30 miles north of the Florida panhandle and probably 80 miles north of the Gulf Coast off Florida.
"On Dec. 21, farther south in Baldwin County (across the bay from
Mobile), I found two rust-infected kudzu patches that were barely hanging on. These were near the research station where rust was found back in late June.
"I visited five fields where soybeans had been grown this summer (and rust was detected) and observed a few volunteers emerging, but plants were barely beyond the cotyledon stage, and no rust was detected.
"I found a one-acre kudzu patch in north Mobile County and found two green leaves that were infected with rust (first positive for Mobile County in 2005). These were the only leaves still alive in the patch. I gave them last rites before moving on.
"I did find a sizeable semi-green patch of kudzu infected with rust in
Clarke County near the town of Jackson, Ala. This was within a mile or two
of the soybean sentinel plot maintained by Billy Moore and Mississippi State this past summer and where rust was detected back in August, about 75 miles north of Mobile. I also found two large patches of kudzu that were completely dormant in the area.
"Moving north into Choctaw County, I found an old abandoned house covered with kudzu near the town of Toxey, about 100 miles north of Mobile. The kudzu was brown except for three green leaves at the top of one vine that was climbing up the south wall of the house. No rust was detected, and I know the leaves are no longer green because I destroyed them when I pulled them down with a large, sharp, pointy stick.
"I doubt there is any green kudzu north of Greenville (south-central
Alabama), and most of what I saw this week in south Alabama will likely go down to due temperatures in the high 20s on a couple of nights this week.
"Why some patches were still green (to some extent) and others were dormant was not always clear to me. On many patches where I found just a few green leaves, the leaves were always at the very top of the vine in the top of a kudzu covered tree or structure. I checked inside some patches where there appeared to be a protected, somewhat insulated area from the cold, but I never found green leaves.
"I also dug through some piles of leaves where I thought kudzu may stay green below their dead brethren, but nothing green was detected."
Exceptions to "100-percent" dieback?
These green-leaf kudzu finds appear to be exceptions to the "100-percent" kudzu dieback USDA reported in its most recent soybean rust forecast this morning. The kudzu dieback areas are identical to the ones posted Dec. 19.
USDA says "100-percent dieback extends northward from southeastern Texas to central Louisiana, southern Alabama, central Georgia, eastern South Carolina and the coastal areas of North Carolina. The 5-percent dieback extends from just inland of the Gulf Coast from eastern Texas to New Orleans, then from near Clearwater to Jacksonville, Fla."
USDA also continues to report that temperatures have fallen to below freezing to the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and in all of the Florida Panhandle, as it said on Dec. 19.
However, in the Dec. 20 state commentary for Florida on www.sbrusa.net, plant pathologist Jim Marois of the University of Florida said:
"We have not had a severe frost in the Florida panhandle yet, and a lot of kudzu leaves are still green. For the most part, the lower canopy has been frozen back, but higher leaves and leaves in protected areas are still growing. Rust spores are still being produced on the infected kudzu, with abundant sporulation on warm days (low 70s)."
[Editor's note: This story was revised after posting today when the new USDA SBR forecast came out.]
Source: Alabama state commentary, USDA SBR Forecast of Dec. 19 and Dec. 23 Ed Sikora e-mail message.
For an easy way to stay informed, sign up for the weekly Bulletin e-mail newsletter from www.StopSoybeanRust.com. You also will receive our RUST FLASH e-mails alerting you to important breaking news as soon as it occurs.
|
| |
|
|
|
