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FRANKFORT,
Ky. — Kentucky tobacco farmers
have a new weapon in their fight against losses due
to leaf spotting diseases, Agriculture Commissioner
Richie Farmer has announced.
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the
use of the pesticide Quadris Fungicide for tobacco.
This action gives Kentucky farmers an effective and
legal fungicide to use in alternation with labeled blue
mold fungicides for controlling frogeye, target spot
and blue mold for the remainder of this crop season.
The effective dates are July 29 through Oct. 15.
“Our
tobacco farmers already have suffered from significant
leaf damage and higher production costs for this year's
crop,” Commissioner Farmer said. “This product will
help farmers prevent potentially devastating losses
to their tobacco crops. We are grateful to the EPA for
taking this action.”
Blue
mold has reached a historically damaging level, and
tissues damaged by the blue mold fungus have been colonized
by the frogeye pathogen. Leaves that are treated with
labeled fungicides for blue mold remain vulnerable to
frogeye and target spot. Increasing summer temperatures
create conditions for serious episodes of target spot
in the field, a disease that can result in even greater
losses than blue mold or frogeye because the colonized
tissue actually rots and falls out. Yield losses approaching
500 pounds per acre are common in portions of fields,
but losses exceeding 2,000 pounds per acre have been
observed.
Experts
caution that Quadris should be used in a manner that
will minimize the development of fungicide-resistant
strains of the target pathogens. Using Quadris in rotation
with the currently labeled spray schedule creates an
estimated economic benefit of $767 per acre for crops
capable of yielding 2,670 pounds per acre.
Tobacco
generated farmgate receipts of $443 million to Kentucky
farmers in 2002, according to the Kentucky Agricultural
Statistics Service.
For
more information, contact your count Extension office.
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