By Clint Thompson
Much-needed rainfall in Southwest Alabama means specialty crop growers should be wary of increased disease pressure in the region.
Jacob Kelley, regional Extension agent in Southwest Alabama, cautions producers about the potential for disease buildup moving forward.
“The drier weather was nice because of less disease impact. We’ve had a pretty clean year as far as diseases go. Especially down in Mobile County, diseases and insects are king and never sleep. This year it was a pretty mild year as far as diseases go,” Kelley said. “I imagine with all of this rain we’re getting, we’re going to see an uptick in pathogens moving around. Growers need to be out there scouting their fields and getting prepared to pull those fungicides out of the pesticide cabinet and get ready to use them. I imagine here in about a week or two, we’re going to start seeing signs and symptoms of pathogens moving around.
“These big storms, they have a lot of wind-driven rain, and they’re going to move pathogens hundreds of miles before they drop them out of the storm. I imagine it’d be a little bit higher pressure than we had been seeing for the rest of the year.”
Crops in Ground
Kelley said crops like broccoli, carrots and collard greens are in the ground, as well as pumpkins for the first time.
“Hopefully, they won’t see too many negative impacts if they go ahead and put out some of those lighter fungicides that are going to help control diseases when there’s a little less pressure and go ahead and get a jump on it,” he added.
Drought Monitor Update
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Southwest Alabama is still experiencing dry conditions, though Mobile and Baldwin counties are abnormally dry now.
“I think it had been two or three weeks (since we had experienced rainfall), not incredibly long, but we’ve had these little afternoon showers. It really depends on where you live in the area,” Kelley said. “I had some folks that had not had rain for four and some, five weeks.
“But then others, they were getting rain every afternoon. It’s kind of hit and miss in the county, because of the bay and all of that stuff moves the weather around. I can’t blanket statement and say everybody’s the same, but some people went up to about five weeks without rain, and others, it might went up to two before they saw a bunch of rain from the storm.”