Peanut And Corn Disease Update

Jun 20, 2014

Peanuts

Area peanut growers are now beginning to consider protecting their crop with fungicide applications. However there have been some reports of a shortage of Chlorothalonil (Bravo, Echo, Chloranil, and others) this season. Here are some recent comments from UGA Extension Plant Pathologist Dr. Bob Kemerait on the current Peanut Disease control situation:

Current conditions (warm weather with developing afternoon thunderstorms) create favorable conditions for leaf spot diseases and white mold.

As mentioned in my previous e-mail, it appears that chlorothalonil (Bravo, Echo, Chloranil, etc.) will be “short” in our supply chain this year and I am already getting many calls and questions about it.

Here are our UGA strategies for dealing with the shortage of chlorothalonil in peanut production:

Consider using a strong leaf spot fungicide like “Headline” (9 fl oz/a, 45 days after planting) to initiate an excellent leaf spot program and to replace potentially 2 applications of chlorothalonil (30 and 44 days after planting).

Reduce the rate of chlorothalonil used in a leaf spot applications by partnering with another fungicide. Examples include mixing chlorothalonil (1 pt/A) with Tilt (propiconazole, 2 fl oz/A) or Alto (cyproconazole, 5.5 fl oz/A) or Topsin-M (5 fl oz/A).

PEANUT Rx: Using “prescription” fungicide programs based upon risk assessment in the field may also be an excellent strategy to reduce use of fungicides in general.

kemerait peanuts

Corn

Also Southern Corn Rust has been confirmed in the area for some time now and many growers have already made a fungicide application on their corn crop. Here are some comments from Dr. Kemerait on the disease situation in this year’s corn crop:

Rust is widespread (and early) this year and found in fields that have not yet reached the tassel stage. (See our current map at http://scr.ipmpipe.org/).

Sporadic afternoon and evening thunderstorms are likely to further move rust spores and also provide the moisture important for infection.

I believe that this is the most significant threat of southern rust in Georgia in the past 10 years.

Southern corn rust (SCR) reduces the photosynthetic capacity of infected leaves. More importantly, a field where SCR is not controlled may develop extensive lodging problems as the stalk is cannibalized for nutrients to feed the ear.

Dr. Dewey Lee and I agree that protecting a crop from rust though the dough stage is beneficial.

I recommend that growers spray by tassel growth stage and then again 2-3 weeks later, depending on the product used in the first application.

On corn where rust is a severe problem, we have seen fungicides protect 25+ bu/A.

Source : uga.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.