On the other hand, certain conditions may also slow its effects. Dry spells increase the pressure on those plants, which, as Southern blight settles in, can prompt a much faster die-off. Wilting is the first sign of this problem, so be sure to keep your eyes attuned to the tops of your plants.īecause this is fairly weather-dependent, think about the water needs of your hemp crop during hot summers. The pathogen attacks the crown of hemp plants, girdling the organism and stopping any uptake of water and nutrients into the upper canopy. Nonetheless, rogueing those affected plants as soon as symptoms emerge is a critical cultural practice. The more we have the buildup of that inoculum in the soils, the higher risk next year's crop is going to be-but also the higher risk it is that you're going to move it around with your tractors, your equipment, your shoes, your tires, that type of thing.” “If not, then that's when we have that spoilation and the production of those scleroses-those survival structures in that soil. “When we see diseased plants, we need to remove them immediately,” she says. “Southern blight already was so very difficult to manage, but now we've got a crop that doesn't have the approved pesticides,” Gauthier says.
Fungus in the soil can easily be moved around very quickly once farmland is activated with, say, a crop of hemp plants. Imagine the use a farmer might get out of his or her tractor-or even muddy shoes. Over time, buildup of this pathogen is very likely. “That basically tells that tale for us, that the pathogen was there all along.” “Surprisingly, that seemed to be a hot spot for Southern blight,” Gauthier says. Over the last several years, as more farmers have gotten into the hemp space (and, in many cases, expanded their fields to accommodate this move), that’s a common issue. She sees Southern blight running rampant in crops that follow unmanaged pasture or uncultivated terrain. Gauthier says that one of the first things to consider with this pathogen is the history of the land. This sets up a problematic showdown in the field. “A hot rainy summer is dead-on for what this pathogen needs to really proliferate,” Gauthier says.Īll fungi need a significant amount of water to complete their life cycles-and so does hemp.
Though, generally speaking, states are seeing fewer acres of hemp planted this year, the crop is still very much subject to Southern blight. With midsummer’s rain-soaked stretches across the Midwest and the South, 2021 is shaping up to be similar to recent years. With a wide host range, Sclerotium rolfsii has no shortage of opportunities to flourish. It’s a ubiquitous pathogen, one that can be found almost anywhere there’s soil. When things blight, usually the leaves will remain intact.”Įach summer, reports of Southern blight surface in university extension reports from Louisiana to southern Ohio and beyond. “It’s when something seems to be OK today and dead tomorrow. “When we say ‘blight,’ blight really means, ‘subject to sudden death,’” says Nicole Gauthier, an extension specialist in plant pathology with the University of Kentucky.
Courtesy of Nicole Gauthier Symptoms of Southern blight are often clear along the plant's stem.
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