{"id":7581,"date":"2025-07-20T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T22:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/?p=7581"},"modified":"2025-07-20T18:59:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T22:59:52","slug":"colquitt-county-extension-row-crop-update-july-21-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/2025\/07\/colquitt-county-extension-row-crop-update-july-21-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Colquitt County Extension Row Crop Update July 21, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Current Situation:  This past week has been hot and there have been some hit-or-miss showers across the county. The majority of the corn crop is around or past dent stage. The cotton crop ranges from squaring to the 4th week of bloom.  The peanut crop ranges from 30 to 90 days old.  Insect pressure has been low in peanuts.  Questions about plant and stink bugs have been common in cotton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a few people make comments about how hot it was last week. The illustration below is the departure from the Normal Average Max Temperature for last week from the High Plains Regional Climate Center. It shows max temperatures were above average last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The illustration below shows the chances of rain increase this week, which will help with the irrigation efforts of local growers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The crop progress report from this past week<\/a> shows that the 55% of the Georgia cotton crop and 57% of the Georgia peanut crop is in good condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had a question about the water requirements for peanuts.  According to Dr. Porter, \u201cOnce peanuts begin blooming and pegging, they will use roughly 0.2\u201d of water daily for ~20 days. By the middle of July, those early\/mid-May planted peanuts can use up to 0.3\u201d of water per day on days that it is hot, windy, with low humidity, so it is important to not get behind on irrigation. It is also important to not let your soil temperature get too high with peanuts pegging as high soil temperatures can burn off pegs. Even though it feels like we are still early in the crop season, peanut will hit peak water usage during July, so do your best not to fall behind and lose yield, especially if we continue to remain in similar weather conditions as we have through the middle of June. I think it is important to note that the soil water holding capacity of most of our sandy loam soils falls in the range of 1.0 inches per foot of soil with 50% of that being plant available. Thus, even with a two foot rooting depth, you will only have 1.0 inches of water available to the crop and that will be utilized in three days at the rate of 0.3 inch usage per day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please refer to the graph below to indicate where you are at with weekly water use in your peanut crop. Remember this requirement is IRRIGATION and RAINFALL with historical evapotranspiration rates figured into the equation.<\/strong> Due to years of research, peanut water demands during different stages have been identified but one of the variables in irrigation scheduling is ET rates. A free tool is available to help determine how much water is lost daily to evapotranspiration, the UGA Weather stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ET values from the Moultrie site of the UGA Weather Network range from 0.19 to .27 inches per day for the period of July 13-19, 2025.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What about cotton irrigation? The graph below should give you a good idea of your weekly water requirements through the month of July IF <\/strong>you planted between mid-April and mid-May. If you planted later keep in mind that the Checkbook was developed from an estimated May 1 planting date, thus, you will need to adjust for higher temperatures and ET rates and will require on average more irrigation than represented in the Checkbook, especially if it remains hot and dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the last couple of weeks, I have received numerous questions about pgr applications (Kudos) on peanuts.  Below, Dr. Monfort has some points to think about plant growth regulator use on peanuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Take: <\/strong>Follow the plant\u2019s actual growth\u2014not the calendar. In some fields, expected at 65 days, vegetative development has lagged despite ample rainfall. This reinforces that timing decisions should be based on observed vine growth, not just days after planting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth Regulator Timing & Rate Recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you planted peanuts in late April to early May, the first application should ideally have been initiated by now (75\u201380 days). Delayed application may reduce the regulator\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended application guidelines for runner peanuts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Rate Range: <\/strong>3.5\u20135.4 oz\/acre, applied twice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Trigger: <\/strong>When 90% of vines are lapped (\u226550% lateral vines touching in row middles)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Second Application: <\/strong>14\u201321 days after the first<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Avoid: <\/strong>7.25 oz\/acre applied twice\u2014this rate is excessive for runner types<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total seasonal application should not exceed 11\u201311.5 oz\/acre<\/strong>, as higher rates may cause plant stress and reduce yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field-Specific Adjustments & Cautions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n