Effect of Age of Soybean Plants (Glycine max L.) on Susceptibility to Bacterial Blight caused by Pseudomonas syringae in Adamawa State

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max), a globally recognized crop plant has numerous industrial, domestic and nutritional values. However, its cultivation on the field has suffered lots of challenges especially infection by various micro-organisms such as fungi and bacteria.  Soybean plants of three (3) and six (6) weeks old of the five different varieties were tasted for susceptibility against the isolated strains of the bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae). The experiment was completely randomized with three replications. The data obtained were presented using bar charts and percentage error bars were used as the least significant difference (LSD). The result showed that there is great variation in susceptibility between 3-weeks and 6-weeks old Varieties of Soybean plants after seven days of being inoculated with Strains of Pseudomonas syringae. Three weeks old varieties of soybeans showed the highest susceptibility to Strains of Pseudomonas syringae at (243.6 mm) lesion size, while six weeks old varieties of soybeans inoculated with Strains of Pseudomonas syringae showed the least susceptibility at (153.2 mm) lesion size. It is recommended that a research work to be carried out on the effect of infection by pathogenic bacteria on the nutritional composition of soybeans seeds.