Disease prevention is key to ensuring a successful peanut crop, especially as growers across the Southeast face tighter rotations and ongoing weather uncertainty. To help farmers prepare for the upcoming season, we caught up with Jacob Smith, Technical Service Representative with BASF, to discuss what peanut growers should be considering when it comes to disease management.
According to Smith, many of the biggest risk factors for peanut diseases are completely outside a grower’s control. As he explains, “There’s a lot of things that are out of our control, right? Weather being the main one, we can’t predict the weather, we have no idea from day to day how that might change, and obviously diseases are very heavily influenced by our weather patterns, our temperature, humidity, obviously in the southeast is the main driver of our disease.” These conditions create an ideal environment for fungal diseases, making proactive planning essential.
While growers can’t control the weather, they can control how they start the season. Smith emphasizes the importance of a strong foundation in peanut disease control programs. “So one thing to be cautious of, because one thing we can do, one thing we can’t plan for, is using strong foundational products, something like pre-axle or fungicide early on in our disease spray programs, so basically starting off on the right foot using a good product that’s going to give you some excellent disease control early in the season.” Early fungicide applications play a critical role in reducing disease pressure before it becomes yield-limiting.
Rotation challenges are another major concern. “We know last year we planted a lot of peanuts behind peanuts, and then this year we’re going to plant a lot of peanuts that were behind peanuts as well, so our rotations are constricting, where normally we would have cotton and corn in that rotation.” Reduced rotation increases the risk of soilborne diseases, making product selection even more important. Smith adds, “We know that we’re going to have to use products that are strong efficacious products, knowing that our disease pressure is going to be at a higher risk because of constricted rotation.”
For growers looking for tailored guidance, BASF offers direct support. “You can visit BASF.com and you can do the rep finder function to find a rep that’s in your area, you’ll search them by the zip code, you can reach out to that representative, they can get you the information you need to help you make the right decision.”
With early planning, strong fungicide programs, and expert advice, peanut growers can better protect their crops and maximize yield potential despite challenging conditions.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.