Otherwise, most areas are still dry. The rain associated with the more widely scattered showers that occured between July 9 and 17 has been depleted. Producers are having major problems with corn earworm and fall armyworm moving out of drought affected corn into peanut fields. Levels as high as 20 to 40 per foot of row of these foliage feeding insects have been reported. The economic threshold for peanut is 4 per foot of row.
Many producers report having to treat for foliage feeding insects for the first time in ten years.
White mold disease has also become more of a problem. The peanut crop in Georgia is in considerably better shape as of July 17 due to a week of widely scattered showers. By no means are we out of the woods, however. Much of the southwest and south central areas of the Georgia peanut belt received anywhere from 1 to 7 inches durng the past week. The eastern part of the peanut belt, which was the driest area, received an inch or less.