Another interesting week this week in Colquitt County agriculture. I started to check peanuts for maturity this past week. Regarding Georgia 06G, the samples’ maturities vary greatly, ranging from 130 to 145 days. I will be conducting peanut maturity clinics on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 10:00 am until the end of September. The clinics will be held at the Colquitt County Extension office.
Rainfall has been plentiful in east side of Colquitt County this past week. Rainfall totals have ranged from a few tenths to over 4 inches according to the information below from NOAA.
Cotton: This week, Aerolate mildew has started to show up in area cotton fields. Areolate mildew, is caused by the fungal pathogen Ramularia areola. The use of fungicides to protect against this disease can be effective in protecting yield, if the disease occurs early enough in the season. The disease is easily identified by the presence of abundant white to gray sporulation on the underside of the affected leaves. The affected leaves often drop prematurely resulting in significant defoliation. Currently the cotton crop ranges from 60 percent open to 5 week of bloom in Colquitt County. If cotton is within 4 weeks of anticipated defoliation or already 25% + prematurely defoliated, I probably wouldn’t use a fungicide to manage this disease. This link shows the results of the 2021 Colquitt County on farm fungicide trial.
We are conducting a cotton fungicide trial in Colquitt County to evaluate cotton yield response to foliar fungicide applications. Treatments include fungicides from BASF and Syngenta. Below is an picture of us applying treatments courtesy of Abraham Fulmer, BASF. Hopefully, results of this demonstration will be available at the end of the year.
Whiteflies? Below is an update on how wide spread whiteflies are in Georgia cotton. This is from Dr. Phillip Roberts, UGA Cotton Entomologist. The top illustration is for the week ending August 26 and the bottom illustration is for week ending August 19, 2022.
What about sticky card capture data? The sticky card data shows another week of increasing numbers compared to last year. If you have questions about this contact your local county Extension agent.
Peanuts: Peanut rust was found in Tifton this past week. I have not found peanut rust in Colquitt County as of 8/28/2022. Dr. Bob Kemerait, UGA Plant Pathologist says “little bit of peanut rust can turn into a lot of peanut rust pretty quickly. Growers should stay on a good fungicide program. Growers should recognize that neither Topsin nor Miravis will touch peanut rust, though Miravis + Elatus WILL. For growers concerned about rust SPECIFICALLY, it might not be a bad idea if using Miravis + Elatus to put a teb-chlorothalonil or Alto-chlorothalonil 14 days after application rather than stretching the full 28 day interval.
I have been conducting a Tomato Spotted Wilt (TSWV) Survey in area peanut fields. TSWV is really bad in numerous peanut fields treated with imidacloprid at planting in Colquitt County. Numerous factors such as planting date, variety, at plant insecticide and final plant stand plays a part in managing TSWV. These factors can be found in Peanut RX. This survey is being conducted by County Agents across Georgia and the data will be presented at the end of the year. Stay tuned. I keep on getting the question about if Georgia-06G is “playing out” with regards to tomato spotted wilt? According to Dr. Bob, the simple answer is “not that I know of”. Georgia-06G has never been bullet proof to TSWV, but it has been as good or better than anything else. There are more-resistant varieties out now (Peanut Rx) but 06-G is still holding its own with regards to TSWV. UGA research shows that for every 1% Tomato spotted wilt Virus (TSWV) incidence in GA-06G at the end of the season, peanuts lose 20 pounds of yield per acre.
If you have any questions or comments please contact your county Extension agent.
Have a great day,
Jeremy M. Kichler
Colquitt County Extension Coordinator.