UW
Soybean Plant Health

How to collect a rust sample

If you believe you have found soybean rust, use the following steps to get a high-quality, intact leaf sample to the UW Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic for verification:

• Select a representative group of leaves (or other plant parts) that exhibit the range of symptoms that you have observed in the field;

• Collect detailed information on the location where the sample was collected so that the site can be revisited if necessary. If you know the GPS coordinates of the site, please provide these;

• If possible, place the leaves between layers of cardboard and paper towels to keep them flat (i.e., layer the materials as follows - cardboard, paper towel, leaves, paper towel, cardboard, paper towel, leaves, paper towel, cardboard, etc.);

• Place the leaves in a self-sealing plastic bag and seal the bag shut;

• Place this bag inside a second self-sealing plastic bag, being particularly careful that the outside of this second bag does not become contaminated;

• Keep the leaves cool by placing them in a cooler or refrigerator between the time of collection and the time when they are shipped to the PDDC;

• Ship samples to the PDDC by overnight mail whenever possible.

• The PDDC address: Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1598

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Asian Soybean Rust

Information from this site can be copied and distributed for educational use. Please credit the source with our name and URL: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Departments of Agronomy, Entomology, and Plant Pathology at  www.plantpath.wisc.edu/soyhealth.

Last update 4/4/06