Effects of Freeze Damage on Soybean Seed Mycoflora and Germination

Pods of soybean (Glycine max) plants grown in three environments (pots under greenhouse conditions, pots exposed to weather, or field plantings) were inoculated at growth stage R5 with isolates of Fusarium graminearum, Alternaria alternata, or Phomopsis longicolla. The applied fungus became the dominant colonist of the pods in all environments. Plants grown in pots were exposed to freezing at -4.5 or -2.5 C at growth stage R6 under controlled-environment conditions, and the latest of three field plantings experienced a natural frost of -2.0 C at the same growth stage (.)