The head of the SCN Coalition’s diagnostics lab says fall is the best time to test the soil for Soybean Cyst Nematode. Kaitlyn Bissonnette, field crop pathologist with the University of Missouri, says she believes getting an egg count back from the lab instead of a cyst count is a better indicator of what’s going on in the soil.
“The number of eggs per cyst will vary and so the number of eggs in the soil will actually tell you how many possible infections could occur, if you will.”
She says SCN is tricky because it can often occur alongside other soybean diseases, like Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), especially in the Midwest.
