Pam Knox mentioned in her blog this past week the historic snowstorm from a couple weeks ago. NOAA’s Climate blog has now posted a story describing the recent snowstorm in southern parts of our region that shows some interesting maps about the coldest temperature and where snowfall records were set. It also relates the weather to the polar vortex and discusses how climate change may have affected what occurred.

I have received numerous phone calls, txt and emails about the need for information on peanut varieties. The table below has that information.

Figure 1. below shows the average seed size and lb of seed need per acre needed to plant 6 seed per foot of row for 22 peanut varieties.   The orange column and the represents the lbs of seed needed to plant 6 seed per foot and the blue columns represent the number of seed per lb per variety.

Do I need a peanut inoculant this year?  According to the UGA Peanut Production Guide “Research in Georgia has shown a tendency for yields to be slightly higher (up to 200 lb/A) when commercially prepared inoculants are used in standard rotations, and significantly larger (as much as 1,500 lb/A) yield improvements when peanuts have never been grown in a field. Evaluate the responses to inoculation and compare the cost of the material and application with potential returns when deciding whether or not to inoculate peanut that is planted in a field that grew peanut within the last five years. Also consider weather extremes that may have influenced Bradyrhizobia survival since the last time peanut was grown.”

Updates for the 2025 Peanut Rx

There have been a few updates to PEANUT Rx 2025 from the 2023 version. All changes that have been made can be found in the cultivar/variety section of Peanut Rx. Minor updates have been included in the discussion of use of Classic herbicide.

As in the previous versions of the Disease Index, growers will note that attention to variety selection, planting date, plant population, good crop rotation, tillage, and other factors, has a tremendous impact on the potential for diseases in a field.

1Adequate research data is not available for all varieties with regards to all diseases. Additional varieties will be included as data to support the assignment of an index value are available. 2High oleic variety.3Variety Bailey II is similar in characteristics to ‘Bailey’ but is a high oleic chemistry. It also have increased resistance to Cylindrocladium black rot (CBR) as compared to other varieties commonly planted in Georgia. 4Tifguard, TifNV-HiOL,,TifNV-HG, Georgia-14N, and Georgia-22MPR have excellent resistance to the peanut root-knot nematode. 5Georgia-12Y appears to have increased risk to Rhizoctonia limb rot and precautions should be taken to protect against this disease. 6These varieties are rarely grown commercially but remain embedded in Peanut Rx as historic examples of how resistance to tomato spotted wilt disease and other diseases have changed over time. 7We continue to evaluate CB7 for full understanding of its leaf spot resistance as data has been variable in some peanut production areas in the Southeast

We had the privilege of hosting Drs. Culepper and Prostko, UGA Weed scientist, this past Thursday night. They were in town to educate local growers about what is new in weed control and Runoff Mitigation plans. They covered alot of good information to help growers with weed issues this up coming production year.

Dr. Prostko spoke about “What do the top Georgia peanut growers do for weed control?” He takes information from 16 growers who were the 2023 Georgia Peanut Achievement Club winners. These growers have an average yield of 5734 lb/A while the 2023 state average was 4080 lb/A. Fifty-six percent bottom plow and 75% plant their peanuts in twin rows. Valor and Cadre are used by 93% and 73% of the growers, respectively.

What about this runoff mitigation stuff?  Dr. Culpeper discussed Runoff Mitigation plans the other night at the Colquitt County Weed management meeting.  Pesticide runoff can occur when pesticides are carried by water off an application site and a plan will help minimize the chances of this. If you would like more information on this subject, please go to this website.  Purpose and Background of Mitigation Menu | US EPA   .  Dr. Culpepper spoke about a Mitigation points system, which is explained with information from EPA. 

Mitigation Menu | US EPA

The Mitigation Points System

EPA has adopted a mitigation point system to convey the level of runoff/erosion mitigation required for a pesticide to address identified ecological risks (e.g. FIFRA IEM, HS, IS, and VSAP). Users can achieve points based on the number and type of runoff/erosion mitigation measures that are adopted for a given treated field. Users also achieve points based on the presence of certain field characteristics/application parameters (e.g., located in low runoff vulnerability county, flat field slope, use of micro-sprinklers, treating only a small portion of the field). EPA determines the number of points required for a pesticide through its FIFRA process on a use site/crop basis—check the pesticide label for the number of points you need to achieve.   

Below is the Runoff mitigation information from the Liberty Ultra label.  You must achieve a minimum of three points.

How do I determine how many points I have?  Below is an excel spreadsheet that is used to determine how many points you can get per situation.

Calculator

Factors such as state, county, slope, soil type, tillage, and field barriers plan a role in determining points on the calculator.   Below is a portion of the excel spreadsheet used to determine points.

USDA’s Web Soil Texture Survey tool to determine soil texture: https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app

If you need help, please contact your local county Extension agent.

Does Roundup + Atrazine Applied POST in Field Corn Reduce Yields? (Prostko)

I recently received a phone call from a south Georgia corn farmer who told me that someone was going around saying that a Roundup + Atrazine tank-mix, applied POST in field corn, will reduce yields.  My response was show me the data.  Here is my data from 3 on-farm field trials conducted in a high yield environment (250+ Bu/A) from 2014-2016.  Bottom line, yields from plots treated with Roundup + Atrazine + AMS applied POST were NOT statistically different from the untreated check in all trials.  Read More

I received a few calls about controlling ryegrass and radish in wheat.  Table 4. Below shows options for achieving this goal.  If you would like more information about this please go to the UGA Programs for Controlling Ryegrass and Wild Radish in 2022/2023 Wheat  circular.  It is an excellent resource.

USDA’s Web Soil Texture Survey tool to determine soil texture: https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app

If you need help, please contact your local county Extension agent.

Does Roundup + Atrazine Applied POST in Field Corn Reduce Yields? (Prostko)

    I recently received a phone call from a south Georgia corn farmer who told me that someone was going around saying that a Roundup + Atrazine tank-mix, applied POST in field corn, will reduce yields.  My response was show me the data.  Here is my data from 3 on-farm field trials conducted in a high yield environment (250+ Bu/A) from 2014-2016.  Bottom line, yields from plots treated with Roundup + Atrazine + AMS applied POST were NOT statistically different from the untreated check in all trials.  Read More

I received a few calls about controlling ryegrass and radish in wheat.  Table 4. Below shows options for achieving this goal.  If you would like more information about this please go to the UGA Programs for Controlling Ryegrass and Wild Radish in 2022/2023 Wheat  circular.  It is an excellent resource.