Since the 1800s, flue-cured tobacco has played a major role in the Pee Dee Region’s agriculture industry. William Hardee and other area agronomy agents have served tobacco growers through on-farm visits to greenhouses and fields, crop insurance disease verification and letters, county test plots, and coordinating the state tobacco production meeting. Through grower surveys conducted at the state tobacco production meetings, annually held on the second Thursday of December in Marion County, we learned that disease management and more specifically bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) was the top issue in producing a successful crop in South Carolina.
David Dewitt and William Hardee conducted a statewide tobacco disease survey and, after compiling the results, they found that this, in fact, is the costliest disease issue in the state of South Carolina. In response to this, they conducted several on-farm bacterial wilt resistant variety tests to demonstrate how the use of resistant cultivars can be used to mitigate losses. This year they are conducting an on-farm trial in Horry County that duplicates a trial that the new extension tobacco specialist, Dr. Matthew Inman, is conducting at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center. This trial compares eleven of the newer resistant varieties to a susceptible check. Dr. Inman and William Hardee are also working to revise the SC Tobacco Production Guide, the tobacco scouting guide and hope to create new disease factsheets in the future. Outside of traditional uses, they are looking forward to exploring alternative uses for the crop.
Submitted by: William Hardee, Clemson Cooperative Extension, Area Agronomy Agent
