By Clint Thompson
Unless you’ve been asleep for the last two months, you know how wet it has been across the Southeast. Persistent rains have been the story for farmers across the region, especially in north Alabama.
Fortunately, the wet weather has slowed in recent days, according to Eric Schavey, Regional Extension agent in Northeast Alabama.
“Rain’s kind of backed off on us now, and we’re glad. We needed sunshine, especially some of my tomato growers,” Schavey said. “We’ve got great looking tomatoes on the vine; green, glossy, pretty, just not getting ripe. I think the lack of sunshine is one of those (factors) that’s really hurting us now. Also, applications for our insecticides and fungicides are very limited because everything is wet.”
Schavey said rainfall has already exceeded amounts for the year, and it’s just the end of July. One positive appears to be the impact the wet weather has had on insect pressure.
“We had a flight of fall armyworms earlier around a month ago, but I think all of these frequent rains have taken care of them. Our turf guys are glad for that,” Schavey said. “We’re seeing some fungus. We’re seeing some diseases pop up. We’ve just got saturated soils right now.”