Young soybean plants are wilting and drying in patches. When I pull them the base is weak and the stem near soil has reddish brown tunnels with a maggot inside. Some seedlings just died. What pest or disease?
Wilting young plants with reddish brown tunnels and a small maggot in the stem near the soil is stem fly girdle beetle complex, and where the whole base rots without a maggot it can also be collar rot or charcoal rot. For the stem fly, a recommended seed treatment insecticide at sowing is the main protection, so it is largely a next season decision, but pulling and destroying wilted plants with the maggot reduces carry over. If you split the stem and find a ring cut girdle, that is girdle beetle, clip and destroy those shoots. If instead the collar is rotted brown to black with no maggot, suspect collar rot or charcoal rot from heat and dry spells, where a recommended biocontrol like Trichoderma in soil and avoiding moisture stress help. Confirm which one by splitting a few plants and checking with your KVK or VNMKV Parbhani.
Mine turned out to be collar rot, no maggot, just rotten brown base after a hot dry week post germination. Seed treatment with Trichoderma the next year reduced the seedling deaths a lot.
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