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“You can’t depend on scattered showers; very few people benefit from that.”
Gary Palmer,
UK Tobacco Specialist |
By Laura Skillman
PRINCETON, Ky., (Aug. 12, 2005) – Tobacco can take the dry weather and the heat
in short spurts but it cannot take what 2005 has decided to dish out.
“I was optimistic until recently,” said Gary Palmer, a tobacco specialist with
the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.
Lack of rain and high temperatures have plagued the growing season. The tobacco
crop started to suffer the week of July 4. About a week later, Hurricane Dennis
brought some rain into the state, but the amounts were mixed. Prior to and after
Dennis, only scattered showers have made their way into the state.
“You can’t depend on scattered showers,” Palmer said. “Very few people benefit
from that.”
Most tobacco fields are feeling the affects of drought. The moisture stress is
also helping add to some disease problems, such as black shank, which is a
fungus that lives in the soil and obstructs a plant’s water uptake. The disease
has been seen across the state and is “just horrendous,” Palmer said. Ridomil,
the normal line of defense against black shank, is a highly water-soluble
chemical that needs soil moisture to work and may not be effective during a
drought, he said.
On the other hand, blue mold, another disease that can be highly destructive to
tobacco, has not been as widespread this year. It has been discovered in 12
Kentucky counties, but the risk of a widespread problem from the disease is
unlikely unless weather patterns change, said Kenny Seebold, plant pathologist
with the UK College of Agriculture.
The recent hot days and nights have essentially removed favorable conditions for
the mold to become widespread. Cooler nights and sporadic rains may provide for
localized outbreaks, but it will take a week of cloudy, drizzly conditions for a
possibility of a more widespread problem.
Farmers who have blue mold or are in areas of close proximity to the disease are
being advised to treat their crop to protect it from disease damage.
The first discovery of blue mold this growing season in the United States was
found in Hardin County. Since then, it has been found in Fayette, Daviess,
Harrison, Breckinridge, Clinton, Grant, Larue, Adair, Monroe, Barren and Owsley
counties. It has also been reported in a number of other tobacco-growing states.
Palmer said once the tobacco is harvested, weather will also play a factor in
the crop’s curing. While you can’t make a poor crop in the field a better crop
after it’s cured, poor curing conditions can further degrade a crop’s quality.
Writer: Laura Skillman
270-365-7541 ext. 278
Contact: Gary Palmer,
859-257-8667
Kenny Seebold, 859-257-7445 ext. 80721Return to Main News page. |
