08/30/2026
🌾 Red Crown Rot vs SDS vs Normal Senescence 🌾
Yellow patches in soybeans? Don’t assume it’s just maturity or SDS.
Red Crown Rot – Interveinal yellowing like SDS, but dig the plants: look for reddish crown at the soil line + tiny red spheres (perithecia) on the lower stem/roots. Roots often rotted.
Sudden Death Syndrome – Same leaf symptoms. Leaves drop but petioles stay attached. Split the stem → white pith. Sometimes blue fungal growth on roots.
Normal Senescence – Uniform yellowing as the crop matures (R6–R8). No red stems, no fungal balls, no patchy dead spots while the rest of the field is green.
Get out and dig. When in doubt, send samples to your diagnostic lab.
