Tropical Storm Arlene Remnants Could Potentially Carry Rust Spores As Far North as Kentucky

To date Florida and Georgia are the only states with official soybean rust confirmations. But new forecasts from USDA say thanks to tropical storm Arlene's path, the soybean rust model forecasts a swath of soybean rust spore deposition from Florida through all of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, most of Tennessee and Kentucky, and the southern half of Louisiana.

USDA forecasts marginal spore deposition is possible in the border areas, including extreme eastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, lower Ohio Valley, and the central Appalachians. The model does not indicate any further transport of spores north of this area even though weather conditions are favorable due to the limited number of known source areas in Georgia and Florida.

Numerous fields have been scouted from Kansas to Delaware and Florida to northern Ohio. To date, Florida is still reporting four counties with rust found on kudzu. Seminole County in Georgia remains the only county with rust on soybean - and it was found on volunteer soybean plants in two locations.

The volunteer soybeans at the original find in Seminole County, Ga., were destroyed in late May; however, rust was found on volunteer soybeans at another site in the same county soon thereafter.

There has been suspicion of soybean rust in Terrell County, Ga., on volunteer soybeans in the past few weeks. Bob Kemerait, University of Georgia plant pathalogist, has examined this area several times. His most recent information indicates that there is no soybean rust in Terrell County at this time.

Scouting continues throughout the south and southeastern part of the U.S. on kudzu and volunteer soybeans, and in other states as far north as Wisconsin and as far to the west as Kansas. Because of the growth stage, no scouting has been reported in several Midwestern states including Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, or the Dakotas.

Forecasters at the University of North Carolina said it would not be surprising to see some spread of the epidemic on available hosts during the middle or latter part of June given the recent favorable wetter conditions the past two weeks and with the past weekend's weather.