How to use this tool

The Soybean Diagnostic Key is a database driven identification tool. Many disorders can mimic one another and hopefully this tool provides helpful information to differentiate between disorders in the field. In many cases, submitting a sample to a diagnostic clinic or laboratory is still needed to positively identify the problem.

Getting Started

Select as much information as you know about your sample from the provided lists (on the left of the page, under “Filter by”). The number in parenthesis after the name indicates how many disorders meet your filtering criteria. Each time you click an attribute, the disorders with that characteristic will remain within the pool of potential disorders. Those disorders not meeting those criteria will drop from the list. Note to view all possible disorders (Insects, Disease, Nutrition and Physiological) that affect a particular attribute, for example Leaf Location, you skip selecting a Disorder Type. For instance, if you click on Disease, then the key will automatically update and display only disease options. Thus, all the Insect, Nutrition, and Physiological disorders will be excluded. You can view each disorder that is listed, or select a third Filter item based on the symptoms to help refine your search. So by selecting another symptom or characteristic will help you narrow down to fewer and fewer remaining possibilities to help you diagnose your problem.