Photo courtesy of Successful Farming/Jenny Rees/UNL
A report at Successful Farming says some soybean producers in the Plains states of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma are finding signs of purple seed stain, or cercospora blight, during the 2018 harvest.
A result of the fungus Cercospora kikuchii, it is also known by the names purple blotch, purple speck, purple spot, or lavender spot, according to Loren Giesler, Extension plant pathologist at the University of Nebraska.
Purple seed stain doesn’t reduce yield, but if more than half the load is discolored, growers may find excessive grain dockage, or may have to blend a bad load, says Doug Shoup, a crop consultant from Lyndon, Kansas.
