By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — As the summer season officially starts, tobacco farmers are hoping for a good growing season that will extent into the curing season this year.

Last year despite the drought, many producers saw their best yields since the tobacco buyout of a few years ago.

In a cruel twist of fate however, many of those same producers saw their crop deteriorate when the hot dry summer continued into the fall, a time when tobacco farmers need just the right amounts of moisture and cool weather to cure their product to perfection.
Instead, many got discolored plants and tobacco that dried too quickly, hurting the quality, something reflected in the price they received from tobacco companies.

This year’s hopes are high for a better crop even though the state as a whole is a bit behind last year at getting the plants into the field.

According to last week’s state ag statistics report, about 79 percent of the burly crop is out compared to 89 percent last year and 75 percent of dark tobacco has been set compared to 94 percent last year.

Undoubtedly the wet conditions especially in western Kentucky have played a part in the numbers game in particular with the dark tobacco crop since most of that is grown in the western portion of the state.

The stats report also made mention of army worms and black shank in some tobacco but not to a degree to worry about right now said Kenny Seebold, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture extension plant pathologist. The thing to watch right now is blue mold. “It’s important for producers to keep an eye on where it is and if the weather favors diseases,” he said. “We feel like we dodged a bullet this spring. We had the perfect conditions for blue mold. We would have been in serious danger if we had gotten spores during the transplant production cycle. By in large on the disease front we’re not seeing a whole lot in terms of challenges out in the field. Our biggest challenge has been being held back because of the rain.”

Seebold added, “If you compare this year to last year, the setting conditions were much better. I guess the problem we’re scared of now is that if the moisture is enough to keep our crop too wet for too long it may not develop the kind of root system we like to see.
“A dry year scares you but a wet year starves you.”

That root system inherently becomes stronger when conditions are dry in the early stages of growth as the roots grows in search of moisture. A strong root system will help resist diseases such as black shank and the dry conditions help to ward off blue mold which has been found in Florida and Georgia so far this year.

Seebold said, on average, blue mold begins appearing in the state as early as the third week of June and as late as the second week of July. It usually first appears in low and shaded areas.

According to information from UK, in the event of a disease outbreak, “producers can use several chemicals as preventative measures including Quadris, an Acrobat or Forum tank mixed with mancozeb, which is found in either Dithane DF or Manzate Prostick or Actigard. Actigard is effective against blue mold, but should not be applied to burley tobacco until the plants are at least 18 inches tall or 12 inches tall for dark tobacco.

“Actigard needs to be applied before an infection to function at its best. Two or three applications of Actigard about 10 days apart during the growing season should protect the plants through topping, which is when the risk for blue mold significantly decreases. The other chemical options work best when applied before the disease becomes established, or when symptoms are first noticed at the very latest.”

The last major outbreak of blue mold in the state was in 2006 with other outbreaks occurring in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Last year’s hot weather kept the disease from becoming a problem even though it was present in the state.