Agricultural News
Peanut Pests Could Pose Challenges For Producers Following 2011 Drought
Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:08:31 CDT
Warm and wet weather conditions across the state are giving farmers a glimmer of hope after last year's disastrous drought. Peanut farmers as well are contemplating what potential this year might hold for a good crop.
Dr. John Damicone, professor of entomology and plant pathology at Oklahoma State University, spoke with Ron Hays at the recent Peanut Expo at Quartz Mountain. Damicone said the hot dry weather last year does have a positive side.
"I always try and tell peanut farmers that when the conditions are good for growing peanuts, they're also good for diseases, unfortunately. But that's when you start making good peanuts is when the conditions are favorable for disease. But when the temperatures are over 100 every day, that heat acts like a fungicide, so we didn't have major disease problems in peanuts last year because of that heat. We also didn't make very good peanuts so they go hand in hand, unfortunately."
If good weather conditions hold with adequate moisture, diseases will quickly become an issue, Damicone said. Unfortunately, there are few choices when it comes to nematicides and producers may have to fall back on other management practices.
"We've lost registration on all our at-plant granular nematicides like Temik and Nemacur and Mocap. We had three at least to select from ten years ago, and now we have none. We have a foliar application of Vidate that's partially effective, but we're going to have to rely more on rotations with non-susceptible crops like corn, cotton, etc., and plant longer rotations otherwise we're going to see more and more nematode problems."
If it's not nematode problems, it's leaf spot that producers are dealing with. Damicone said farmers have more choices and generally have a better handle on leaf spot control.
"Our farmers spray more for that than any other peanut disease. We've got good fungicides for that that are fairly inexpensive and the main key there is when to apply it. We have an advisory system on the Mesonet that helps farmers time their fungicide applications or they can put them on according to the calendar. A lot of farmers have a pretty good handle on when to spray for leaf spot. When it's hot and dry of course, the conditions aren't favorable. And you can maybe skip some application during those times."
Damicone said sclerotinia is still a big problem in some areas. It can stay in the soil for a decade or more. He said he's surprised that sclerotinia seems to be in check in some areas, especially near Frederick.
" Those guys have been growing peanuts now for 20 years and we can't find sclerotinia down there and that's a good thing. But Caddo County and along the Red River is mainly our sclerotinia areas now. We'd like to see Caddo County come back to produce the 30,000 acres that they did at one time. Maybe that's an unrealistic expectation, but one of the reasons why they haven't come back is sclerotinia.
He said there are effective controls for the disease, but price, right now is the limiting factor. He said he's heard that DuPont has developed a broad spectrum fungicide that will combat sclerotinia, but whether it will be useful or not is totally a function of price.
Damicone said a lot of farmers are turning to Virginia type peanuts because of economic incentives. He said the profits can be good or not so good depending upon the season and the effects of pod rot.
"Some years you can get away with growing Virginia types and not have severe pod rot. Some years it can really bite you and you can lose half your crop to pod rot. That's really the only disease that we have that we don't have a good answer for in terms of a fungicide you can spray or a variety you can plant."
You can hear Ron Hays' full interview with Dr. John Damicone by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
