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Other crop problems

Hail

Hail can be devastating to a dry bean crop. Dry edible beans have a much more limited ability to recover from hail than soybeans. Determinate plant varieties are less likely to recover than Type II indeterminate types.

When evaluating hail damage, check for bruising on the plant stem. Stems damaged during the vegetative stage may not be able to support the weight of pods. In addition, wounds from hail damage serve as entry point for bacterial blight pathogens to infect plants. When the pods are damaged by hail, the seeds or entire pods will often rot.

A study was conducted on use of fungicides in dry beans with simulated hail damage and reported here: Strobilurin Fungicides for Plant Health in Dry Beans, 2009-2011. Briefly, the report states that applying Quadris or Headline did not visibly reduce plant stress and did not result in a yield response to any cultivar or market class.

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