Tobacco Disease Management - Start Planning Now for the Next Growing Season

Weekly Newspaper Article for The News-Democrat, Carrollton, KY

Photo by Stephen Patton, University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture

With the 2012 tobacco growing season wrapping up, growers are working hard to get their crops into the barns.

On one hand, the dry conditions of this past summer have kept leaf diseases, like frogeye and target spot, in check and we have not seen any blue mold across the state.  On the other hand, we saw more black shank and Fusarium wilt across the state than we have for the past three to four years.

Looking forward to the next growing season, it is hard to say what will be the big disease issue.  So much depends on the climate when we are dealing with diseases like blue mold, target spot, and frogeye.  However, we do know that some problems will show up again and again once certain pathogens get established in float beds or the field.


Begin thinking about diseases like Pythium root rot, target spot, black shank, and Fusarium wilt and how to get a head start on managing them next season.

A critical step is to evaluate your sanitary practices on the farm.  Many diseases seen in the float bed system and field survive between crops on equipment and plant residues.  Thoroughly clean and sanitize greenhouses, trays, and outdoor float beds in the fall to reduce overwintering pathogen populations.  Make sure to bury or burn plant debris and trash.

In the field, especially where black shank may have been a problem, it is important to turn all crop debris as quickly as possible after harvest.  The black shank pathogen survives very well on crop residues and stalks left in the field, leading to future disease outbreaks.  By plowing those crop residues under in the fall, soil microbes will have more time to break down plant matter and reduce survival of the pathogen.

One of the best practices for preventing or suppressing diseases is rotation to a non-host crop.  Even though we are many months away from planing, start the planning process now and make decision about field choice and potential rotation crops.

Fall is a great time to think about variety selection and begin planning for transplant production.  Varieties such as KT 210, KT 206, and KT 209 continue to perform well against black shank.  KT 210 offers a good combination of black shank and Fusarium wilt resistance.  We should also see a wider availability of KT 212, an early-maturing variety that is similar to 14 X L8, but with more moderate resistance to race 1 black shank.