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OVERVIEW

Hot, dry weather continues complicating peanut production in many areas. Weeds are harder to kill, non-irrigated peanuts are growing slowly and fruiting has been disrupted.

Fungicides are still going out. Humidity levels are high enough to foster disease in places, plus scattered showers are falling enough to increase the risk factor.

Pest Alert For Alabama Peanuts And Vegetables. Trap reports and field observations, July 1 edition.

PEANUTFAX CROP REPORTS, JULY 2, 2009

Rome Ethredge, Seminole County, Georgia, Extension Coordinator: "We’ve got a lot of young peanuts that already are blooming. We’ve had a string of days at or over 100, plus dry weather up until the weekend (6/27-28). The hot weather has been pushing them into early blooming, and it’s been so hot that they’re not pegging down. Pegging will probably start again with cooler conditions. We’re getting some more showers today (6/29). But we’re still not out of the woods yet. Fungicides – mainly leaf spot materials – are going out, plus herbicides are being applied for weeds that have gotten past us. We have a lot of weed problems in all our crops, primarily Palmer amaranth. Some is ALS resistant, some Roundup resistant, so it’s a real battle."

David L. Wright, Florida Extension Agronomist, Quincy, Fla.: "Peanuts generally look good. We have quite a few late fields due to poor planting conditions, and people are trying to clean up weeds now (6/30). Growers following the AU-Pnut fungicide model are finding that treatments are being recommended on peanuts that weren’t planted too long ago. The model bases that on rainfall, the high probability of more rain and the increased chance for leaf spot. You definitely don’t want leaf spot to get started because it’s so hard to overcome when it develops early. If the model calls for applications, that’s based on verified research, and I would consider doing it. Before the rain, lesser cornstalk borers had started working on some pegs, but the rain should help overcome that problem. We’ve gotten 2 inches here in the last 2 to 3 days, mainly from afternoon showers."

Edward Kane, Ind. Crop Consultant, Robertsdale, Ala.: "We’ve got a lot of weed control applications underway. Treatments seem to be working pretty good, even though the weather has been dry. We’re going on our second fungicide treatment on the oldest peanuts, and the majority of our crop is just reaching the first treatment. We’ve had very little worm pressure. We treated one field with Tracer and another with Steward for a mix of cutworms, armyworms and budworms. Three-cornered alfalfa hoppers are building, as are leaf hoppers, and we’ll likely treat some of the older peanuts before long, probably with the third fungicide application."

Kris Balkcom, Research Assistant, Wiregrass Research and Extension Center, Headland, Ala.: "It’s real hot but not as hot as it was last week. We’re still suppose to move into the upper 90s and toward 100. Rain fell in small spots over the weekend (6/27-28) but mostly south of us. All plants can do right now is try to cope, and they’re just kind of sitting there. At this point I don’t think we’ll see a lot of fruiting until we have a big rain event. Some growers will certainly wait on a fungicide application as dry as it is. They’ll wait for some kind of rain event. We would consider an ‘event’ to be as little as a tenth of an inch, but a lot of places haven’t even had that in a while."

Mike Howell, Extension Area Agronomist, Gulfport, Miss.: "We’re still waiting on rain. Isolated showers fell last week, and a limited area received 1 to 1.5 inches. But I only know of 2 peanut fields that caught it. We do have a better chance of rain in the next day or two (from 7/1). Peanuts are still growing and blooming. Most folks are waiting for rain before they apply any fungicides."

Jay Chapin, Extension Specialist-Peanuts, Blackville, S.C.: "It’s bone dry, and things have gone down in a hurry. Crops were spoiled with all the rain earlier and developed shallow root systems – corn and everything else. Peanuts haven’t hit their critical stage yet and still have a good deal of forgiveness in them, but we certainly would prefer good soil moisture to set early pegs. We’re trying to kill pigweeds and have a lot of ALS resistance. We seem to get less performance out of Cadre every season.

"We’re starting fungicide programs on more of the crop and are hitting that 45-day leaf spot point, which is the latest we ever want to wait to start a fungicide program. That’s the Bravo or Tilt-Bravo application. Even if it’s hot and dry, we want chlorothalonil protection on that canopy. The canopy can close quickly if it starts raining, and we want the lower foliage protected. It’s foolish to skip that 45-day leaf spot application when we have no idea what we’re facing in September in terms of harvest conditions. We get economic levels of late leaf spot every year with few exceptions. Varieties we plant are extremely susceptible, plus we’re in a late leaf-spot environment. Particularly in runner-type production, it’s paramount that we get a protectant out no later than 45 days.

"But what we do at 60 days is extremely critical on leaf spot control. We have 5 varieties that we emphasize – do something special on these at 60 days for leaf spot. That can be Provost, an extra half-pint of Bravo in with Folicur, it can be adding 5 oz/acre of Topsin. We’ve got more than one way to get there. We don’t cut any corners on late leaf spot early in the year. Also, our earliest peanuts are coming up on the first white mold treatment at 60 days, which will be in the first week of July. Growers need to plan what soil disease program they’ll go with. We have lots of options. The most critical white mold treatment is at 75 and 90 days after planting. If you make a mistake in material selection at 75 days that’s not going to show up until mid August. It’s a preventive program and it’s risk management. We don’t know what we’re up against, weather-wise. But we do know that year in and year out we almost always have severe late leaf spot pressure and severe white mold pressure except in limited soil areas that aren’t as prone to white mold. I’m primarily emphasizing this on Virginia-type production, which is 80% of what we have. We do have some runner production, and on some of the new runner lines we can pull out some fungicide treatments and do things differently. But not on these Virginia types."

Todd A. Baughman, Texas Extension Peanut Specialist, Vernon, Texas: "The peanut crop out here looks mostly excellent. We started with cooler weather, which isn’t conducive to cotton growth, but peanuts do a better job of handling it. Vines are tremendously healthy and starting to peg. We did finally hit hot weather, and it moved over 100 in places last week, so we saw some wilting. In some locations, it hit 104 to 105 for a couple of days, which we usually don’t see until after the Fourth of July. So, the key for us now is keeping on top of irrigation. Overall, though, things look good. One consultant said this morning (6/30) that peanuts ‘look almost scary good.’ No insect pressure. Disease pressure is real low. We’re finding isolated spots of sclerotinia and Southern blight popping up, but nothing major. We got isolated showers last Thursday, and that helped cool things down a bit, even in places where it didn’t rain. I was on the west side of the state last Thursday, and peanuts looked great out there, too."

John Beasley, Georgia Extension Agronomist, Tifton, Ga.: "Over the weekend some areas did get rain, with fairly heavy amounts in our southern tier of counties. The heaviest reported was 2 to 4 inches in parts of Decatur County. But we still had areas that missed it, altogether. It was kind of a 50/50 deal on who got it and who didn’t. Up until the last day or so we’ve had 100-plus highs. Now we’re in a cooling trend, I guess you would say, but the high is still around 95. We’re still seeing corn earworm and tobacco budworm. I don’t know of any that have reached high levels or that have been treated. Some lesser cornstalk borers were turning up in dryland fields last week. This hot weather and humidity will create a prime opportunity for leaf spot. Some 75-day peanuts probably are getting their first soil-borne fungicide right now. Bob Kemerait (Extension Plant Pathologist) always says that we’re set up for white mold to develop when peanuts are stressed early and then rain and humid conditions develop. It’s the perfect formula, he says."

Trey Bullock, Bullock’s Ag Consulting, Hattiesburg, Miss.: "It’s still dry. Our peanuts range from 20 to 65 days old. Some of our oldest were getting their first soil fungicide applications, and they were only 10 to 12 inches wide, with about as many blooms as leaves. Our biggest issue continues to be weeds. As dry as it is, we’re not sure what to do. It’s not a matter of resistance, simply poor growing conditions for everything – peanuts, broadleaf weeds and grass. Where we’ve put out a few fungicide shots it’s just to be covered in case it rains or disease does develop.

"Rain continues to be promised to us but never quite arrives. Every morning I check The Weather Channel’s long-range forecast on my Blackberry, and it always calls for a 60% chance of rain 9 to 10 days out. But by the time you get to those dates, the chances are next to nothing. Nighttime lows have been 77 to 78, with highs up to 103. An odd thing is that we’re dealing with a lot of weeds we normally don’t see, which probably is due to all the rain we received earlier. Eclipta, for example, is turning up. It’s considered kind of an aquatic weed, but it’s coming up today (7/1) on sandy ground."

ALSO AT AGFAX.COM

Pest Alert For Alabama Peanuts And Vegetables, 7-1. Trap reports and field observations.

SW Alabama On The Farm Newsletter, 6-30, Upcoming events; soybean rust successfully overwintered.

Farmers Slash Peanut Area 6-30

Texas Crop, Weather, 7-1, Drought severely stressing crops, livestock, agricultural producers and rural communities.

Virginia Ag Pest Advisory, 6-26, Thrips Research on Peanut - 2009

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