drought may be busted, but . . . . Larry Dill 08/16/2012 @ 2:23pm In my neck of the woods we are seeing occasional light rain (averaging about a half-inch each week or ten days), and indeed the temps are lower than recent months, BUT now I am seeing conditions favorable to SDS development. In recent years, our yields have increasingly been ravaged by SDS (favored by cool, wet weather). This year, at least through July, it was not a problem. Now I am seeing SDS developing, and it is gaining steam rapidly in these cool, damp beans, yet the soil is still fairly dry, and thus bean maturation is slower than normal. I see this fungus as a new threat to bean pod development, while the number of pods on plants was capped by reduced plant growth during the drought (a lot of flowers just did not set). I would love to sell beans now, BUT I simply cannot predict with any confidence how many beans I will harvest - around here we normally get around 50 bu/A. Two years ago SDS limited us to around 20 bu/A. SDS is becoming wider spread each year - it will only get worse, and it thrives in weather like we are having today. So, I am not sure I'd rule out $20 beans just yet.