In the U.S., fungicides are used in the field to control ten major diseases of peanuts. For decades, peanut harvesting started when the peanuts in a field were stripped of their leaves by one of these diseases. Peanut yields increased dramatically between 1969 and 1987 following the introduction of effective synthetic chemical fungicides. Fungicides continue to be needed to maintain high peanut yields.

“It’s one of the harsh realities of growing peanuts in the Southeast – you will have disease problems. ‘The same type of weather and climate that helps you grow peanuts so successfully in the Southeastern United States also makes it difficult to control diseases,’ says Bob Kemerait, University of Georgia Extension plant pathologist. Fungicide programs, he adds, constitute the single most expensive input a grower will have in peanut production. ‘It’s not seed, insecticides or herbicides. You spend more in fungicides than perhaps anything else – that’s the bad news. The good news is the tremendous value you receive from controlling diseases. We could not make the desired yields and grades without these programs,’ says Kemerait.”

Author: Paul L. Hollis
Title: Peanut fungicides valuable tools.
Publication: Southeast Farm Press. 2008. Vol. 35(12).