By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Peanut Commission and University of Georgia Extension Peanut Team advise growers to take proper precautions when planting their crop this spring.
Scott Monfort, UGA Extension peanut agronomist, discusses the current planting season which is taking place in some abnormally dry fields across Southwest Georgia.
“We’ve had spotty rain showers but yeah, it’s getting dry in places,” Monfort said. “The main thing is to make sure we’re not planting into sub-par conditions. Make sure that we’ve got moisture. Make sure if you plant them then don’t let them dry out.
“It doesn’t take a lot of moisture, but they do have to have moisture in the top 4 inches that they can pull from. You definitely don’t want to plant them in dry dirt, and you don’t want to plant them with the threat that the moisture is going to dry out. Make sure you don’t limit them.”
Abnormally dry conditions are expanding across the southwest area of Georgia. The dry area starts as far south as Mitchell and Colquitt counties, expands eastward to Telfair and Jeff Davis counties, northward to Taylor and Crawford counties and westward to Quitman and Stewart counties along the Georgia-Alabama state line.