Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

Predictably unpredictable: Building resilient crops for a changing world

An unusually mild winter followed by a wet spring made last year one of the worst in a decade for Pennsylvania soybean growers. It wasn't the soybeans that were the problem; it was the slugs. The pests survived the warm winter to lay a second round of eggs, and twice as many slugs hatched in the spr...

Predictably unpredictable: Building resilient crops for a changing world
Image: Phys.org
An unusually mild winter followed by a wet spring made last year one of the worst in a decade for Pennsylvania soybean growers. It wasn't the soybeans that were the problem; it was the slugs. The pests survived the warm winter to lay a second round of eggs, and twice as many slugs hatched in the spring of 2024 as the year before. The slugs ate so many seedlings that some growers had to replant three times.

Originally published at Phys.org

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