North Carolina State University has launched the Soybean Diagnostic Key, a database-driven identification tool, accompanied by instructions for use.
Many disorders can mimic one another. Hopefully this key provides helpful information to differentiate between disorders in the field. In many cases, submitting a sample to the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic is still needed to positively identify the problem.
The key uses a series of filters that users can select to narrow down the causal agent of a soybean disorder. In total, there are 21 insect, 33 disease, 11 nutritional and 27 physiological/herbicide related issues that the tool points toward.
Each of these has an associated fact sheet that will describe the disorder and aid in subsequent management considerations.
If you have questions or suggestions on how the key could be improved, please send those to Rachel Vann at rachel_vann@ncsu.edu and Dominic Reisig at dominic_reisig@ncsu.edu