The importance of fungicide seed treatments on cotton was examined using a series of standardized fungicide trials from 1993 to 2004. Fungicide seed treatments increased stands over those from seed not treated with fungicides in 119 of 211 trials. Metalaxyl increased stands compared to nontreated seed in 40 of 119 trials having significant fungicide responses, demonstrating the importance of Pythium spp. on stand establishment. Similarly, PCNB seed treatment increased stands compared to nontreated seed for 44 of 119 trials with a significant response, indicating the importance of Rhizoctonia solani in stand losses. Benefits from the use of newer seed treatment chemistries, azoxystrobin and triazoles, were demonstrated by comparison with a historic standard seed treatment, carboxin + PCNB + metalaxyl. Little to no stand improvement was found when minimal soil temperatures averaged 25°C the first 3 days after planting. Stand losses due to seedling pathogens increased dramatically as minimal soil temperatures decreased to 12°C and rainfall increased. The importance of Pythium increased dramatically as minimal soil temperature decreased and rainfall increased, while the importance of R. solani was not affected greatly by planting environment. These multi-year data support the widespread use of seed treatment fungicides for the control of the seedling disease complex on cotton.

‘Titan’ (Reg. No. CV‐112, PI 660127) virginia‐type peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. subsp. hypogaea var. hypogaea), which was developed and tested as VT 9506083‐3 by the Virginia Tech was released in May 2010. In Virginia, Titan was tested from 1997 to 2005 at several locations throughout the peanut‐growing area of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In 2007 and 2008, it was tested in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina in the Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation trials. Titan is an extra‐large‐seeded peanut with an exceptionally high content of jumbo pods and super‐extra‐large kernels (SELK) in all tests performed from 1997 to 2008. It has the highest jumbo‐pod content of any cultivar available at this time with values ranging from 69 to 97% in all tests. Titan had 36–60% SELK content with seeds averaging 1437 mg/seed. Because of these characteristics, Titan is well suited for in‐shell‐peanut, gourmet, and green‐boiling products. On average, Titan produced a pod yield of 4700 kg ha−1 and was moderate susceptible to Cylindrocladium black rot (caused by Cylindrocladium parasiticum Crous, M.J. Wingf. & Alfenas), Sclerotinia blight (caused by Sclerotinia minor Jagger), and tomato spotted wilt (caused by Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus).

Abstract Susceptibility to viral and fungal diseases is a major factor limiting profit in the production of virginia-type peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) in the South Carolina coastal plain. Field tests were conducted over a three-year period (2006–08) to evaluate the disease resistance of 47 experimental virginia-type breeding lines and eight cultivars. Relative to commercially available standards, cultivar Bailey (recently released by N. C. State Univ.), three sister lines (N03088T, N03089T, and N03090T), and N03091T were found to have consistently less susceptibility to tomato spotted wilt tospovirus; late leaf spot, Cercosporidium personatum (Berk. and Curt.) Deighton; and stem rot, Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. The level of field resistance measured for these three diseases was comparable to that of a resistant runner-type cultivar, Georgia-03L. Yield was highly correlated with multiple disease resistance, and yield performance of some resistant lines exceeded the best commercial standard cultivars under reduced fungicide programs. Potential negative attributes of Bailey, its sister lines, and N03091T were a greater susceptibility to leafhopper injury, Empoasca fabae (Harris), and a relatively larger plant size at maturity, without well defined rows to facilitate digging. Other lines that demonstrated reduced susceptibility to both tomato spotted wilt and stem rot were N03005J and N02009. Although only evaluated in the last test year, five Univ. of Florida lines (FLMR7, FLMR9, FLMR12, FLMR14, and FLMR15) and Georgia-08V (recently released by the Univ. of Georgia) also showed some reduction in stem rot susceptibility relative to the standard (cultivar NC-V 11). Equally important, many experimental lines were identified with significantly greater disease susceptibility than current commercial cultivars. Under South Carolina production conditions, these lines would be poor candidates for advancement. Deployment of the multiple disease resistance found in these experimental cultivars offers several potential benefits beyond direct yield improvement: reduction of fungicide input costs for both foliar and soil disease control, prolonging the utility of currently available fungicides, and reduction of weather related harvest risk by allowing earlier initial planting dates.