A few important updates.
1. Soybean rust now confirmed in soybean sentinel plots in Midville, Burke County. Payton Sapp could only keep this disease at bay for so long from his county. His daughter would have shut the disease down. She is a fighter; gets that from her mother. Soybean producers across the SE and SW districts are advised to use a fungicide to protect against rust if they haven’t reached R6/full seed growth stage or have not already sprayed within the last 21 days. First picture is of rust pustules from Midville.
2. Target spot is burning bright in some fields. Two pictures Jeremy of Colquitt County fame sent me yesterday. 4th week of bloom, 40% defoliated, there will be yield loss. Any fungicide now likely too little too late.
Threats to peanut, cotton, soybean, and corn crops remain high given current weather conditions and crop development stages. While determining “if, when, and what” to apply for disease management should always be done carefully, now is not the time to be timid or indecisive in protecting a crop from disease.
Pam Knox knows way better than I do, but it looks like we will see a significant break in the current late-July heat soon after August roles in. There will also be an increased chance for rain.
My advice to growers now is to A) anticipate how timing a fungicide ahead of rain could help in white mold control and B) to anticipate if wet(er) weather could keep them out of the field for a little while.
Target spot and soon areolate mildew could be problems in your cotton fields. Complicating this are shortages in Priaxor, Miravis Top, and Headline. For now azoxystrobin is more readily available. Azoxystrobin is “fair-to-good” on target spot, but “good-to-very-good” on areolate mildew.
Corn- my biggest worry for our corn crop beyond rust is Diplodia ear rot. This disease is only a problem when susceptible hybrids are grown under cooler and wetter conditions. We’ll see…
