Regan and I will be chauffeuring Dr. Kemerait’s pathology class around next Monday, hunting diseases. This teaches new Extension Agents how to correctly ID diseases in the field, take samples, and then identify pathogens under a microscope. If you see a caravan on the edge of one of your fields, it’s probably us.

Peanuts: The rain is good, but these frequent flash showers keep the humidity high, which helps white mold to continue developing. Warmer nights, 75° and up, are not helping with white mold either. I’d say to stick timely fungicide program and remember we can’t fully stop the individual hits of white mold, but we can keep it from spreading. Some foliage feeders may be cycling through; I would watch them and only spray if needed. Overall, peanuts are looking good, and I’m seeing little to no disease, which is good.

Cotton: Conditions are ripe for target spot and areolate mildew in cotton. It would not hurt to throw in a fungicide on your next Pix trip. We focus on protecting target spot up through the 6th week of bloom because that’s when the most damage can occur. The same fungicides that protect against target spot also protect against areolate mildew; however, Azoxystrobin is not as effective as Priaxor or Miravis Top on target spot.

Corn: Starting to see some black layer in some of our earlier corn. This is a good sign because we can cut the pumps off. Remember it is best to harvest it before it drops below 20% moisture and dry it. Yield and quality will be better. Also there are reports of aspergillus showing up in the drier spots especially where their is poor shuck cover. If you have that, it would help to get the corn out quicker or pull dry spots separate.

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