Dan Anco Comments:
Rainfall over the past few weeks has thankfully helped much of the peanut crop to continue growth and pod fill. Yield potential is looking good, though more time still remains before harvest. Large canopies and available moisture consequently encourage development of disease. Late leaf spot lesions have recently been identified in Barnwell and Hampton Counties on current-year peanut. Both areas have previously had heightened levels of leaf spot infections in past years as well as active scouting monitoring the condition of the crop. We have multiple highly effective fungicides available, but they all work best when applied preventatively, and it is shrewd when we do not overly rely on an individual single-site mode of action group or product, but rather rotate among fungicides in an overall program and/or include multi-site products such as chlorothalonil (Bravo). Where feasible, all fields benefit from attentive scouting, which can often make the difference between early identification allowing informed response, or an unknown festering lurking beneath the foliage. Less dramatically, scouting can also help confirm that things are going according to plan.
Also a quick reminder about peanut scouting workshops this week:
Wednesday the 27th at PDREC in Florence, https://forms.gle/g6ro8kS5HDM19VTp6
Thursday the 28th at Lone Star Plantation in St. Matthews
Dan Anco
Extension Peanut Specialist and Associate Professor
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Clemson University – Edisto Research and Education Center
64 Research Road
Blackville, SC 29817
630-207-4926 cell