That's why it's vital that farmers take recommended precautions now. Even knowing what to look for isn't enough. By that time, it's too late. By then, the mold has potentially infected the entire greenhouse and anywhere else that the wind could carry the spores. West of a line from Thompkinsville to Louisville, Nesmith is recommending that farmers spray Acrobat in the field because spores are already airborne there.
Farmers have to think a lot further away than the neighbor next door.
Doing all he can Like many Kentucky farmers, the Thompson family hasn't had a good tobacco crop in three years. Blue mold nearly wiped them out in 1996. On his 70-plus acres outside Versailles, he has grown his own transplants from seed. He has kept the greenhouse tidy. He had sprayed all the right chemicals at all the right intervals in the recommended ways.