Soybean cyst nematode (H. glycines) is the most damaging pathogen of soybean in the United States and Canada. The main management strategy has been to rotate soybean crops with non host crops. However, this strategy has not proved always effective, leaving the need for more study and application of nematode-protectant seed treatments.
The goal of the study was to determine the effectiveness of two different seed treatments on soybeans: ILeVO (fluopyram) and VOTiVO (Bacillus firmus I-1582). These two seed treatments coat the soybean seeds in active ingredients (AI) to help the plants fight different pests and diseases, while also using a less amount of AIs as it’s applied directly to the seed and root area of the plants and not across an entire field.
The researchers grew soybeans and inoculated the roots of the treated and untreated soybeans with H.glycines at various soil depths. The data supports that ILeVO fights against H.Glycines, but gets less effective as the roots grow away from the treated seed. ILeVO also significantly reduced second-stage juvenile (J2) SCNs compared to the untreated soybean seeds. ILeVO treated seeds also significantly reduced the movement of J2 populations compared to the groups of non treated seeds and groups of just the J2 populations. VOTiVO had no effect on the measured parameters in the study.
This study was published in 2019. For the whole study, click here.