Tobacco Blue-Mold Forecasting Gives Farmers a Jump on Disease Tobacco blue mold is a fungal disease that attacks tobacco and can be costly when it strikes a tobacco crop. In the past, farmers had to spray tobacco regularly in an effort to prevent the disease from attacking their crops. But regular spraying is expensive and not always effective.
Blue mold is transmitted by mold spores carried by wind under specific atmospheric conditions.
The presence of spores, combined with wet, overcast weather conditions, provides the best combination for blue mold to attack tobacco. Under these conditions, when farmers spray their tobacco, they reduce the chances of losing their crop to blue mold. By spraying their fields only when necessary, they save money and help preserve the environment. The results have been positive. In the North Carolina burley crop for 1997, losses due to blue mold were less than half of those for 1995 and 1996.