By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Peanut Commission and University of Georgia (UGA) Extension Peanut Team advise growers to use the current dry weather conditions to catch up on tasks needed at this point in the growing season.
“It’s the normal things we do between 30 and 60 days,” said Scott Monfort, UGA Extension peanut agronomist. Tasks like fungicide applications, weed management, gypsum and boron applications are vital for growers. “We’re just a little bit behind, and we need to get caught up. That’s what we’re hoping we can do.”
Peanut producers are behind because of persistent rains during early-to-mid-June. They kept farmers out of the field which prevented fungicides from being applied in a timely manner. That tops the priority list for growers who hope to keep their crop disease free.
“The problem is you’re not going to see diseases right this minute, but we need to start spraying to make sure we don’t. That may promote a disease issue later. There are some growers that are tightening their programs up a little bit. They’re changing up the chemistries to try to make sure to try to offset some of that,” Monfort said. “We’re behind. It may promote more disease later. We’ll just have to see how the weather does.”
Monfort said some peanut plants suffered damage from the winds and storms, specifically, with leaves being blown off. But he wasn’t overly concerned considering peanut plants’ resiliency.
“I’m not too worried about that. Now the later we get that kind of stuff, the worse of an impact it might be,” Monfort said. “Right now, we’re in good shape. The crop, overall, looks pretty good.”