July 2000 Articles

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Nematodes And Herbicide Injury

By Randy Simonson, Ph.D.
Technical Services Manager

There is an interesting article in the May 2000 issue of Wallace farmer. The article describes some research conducted in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin where interactions between soybean cyst nematode (SCN) injury in soybeans and herbicide damage to the soybeans was looked at. The main outcome of the research was that soybeans would recover very well and quickly from post herbicide application if the SCN population was low or a SCN resistant variety was used. However, if a SCN susceptible variety was used with high cyst populations, then the soybeans had greater herbicide injury and a slower recovery.

Basically, the plant has a much harder time overcoming two different stresses put on the soybeans than if it only has one stress. This is similar to nutrient deficiencies. Certainly one nutrient deficiency can cause problems to a crop, but when you have two or more nutrients out of balance, you really have a problem.

Stress to the crop can come in may different ways: nutrient deficiencies, nutrient levels that are too high, pH that is too high or too low, diseases, insects, weed competition, herbicide damage, compaction, too much rain, drought, etc. The more you can reduce stresses to your crop, the higher the yield will be.

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