Soil samples taken in the areas of good and bad growth showed that nematodes were the likely cause. I came to find out that the grower was on a very short rotation, a key reason for these problems building up. The traveling, singing, plant pathology, cowboy continued to sing. I knew just what this mysterious, traveling, singing, plant pathology, cowboy was trying to say with his enchanting song. By comparison, seed with TSWV were often small and had a poor shape, and the seed coats were often cracked, but they never have cinnamon colored speckles.
Sclerotinia blight can cause pod rot also.
However, you will always see some limb disease too. The straw colored lesions were sometimes hard to see if you were not squatting down, and parting the vines to reveal infected limbs inside the canopy. Limb rot, also called Rhizoctonia limb rot, can kill limbs and cause pot rot, however, the lesions are darker than Sclerotinia blight, and often go unnoticed even though significant pod rot can be occurring. This disease can attack limbs or the main stem killing the whole plant. Neither limb rot nor stem rot will cause a root rot first.