It appears that different peanut fields may have different needs for manganese fertilization this year. We made this observation while scouting several peanut fields last week: here at the Tidewater AREC and also in farmers’ fields in Southampton County. Even though we applied 1 qt of 9% liquid manganese almost three weeks ago, some fields appear to need more. If manganese deficiency symptoms occur, applying more manganese with the next fungicide treatment would be a good approach.

‘Bailey’ peanut showing manganese deficiency

We have seen manganese deficiency late in the season in 2012. This year, rainfall was less than in 2012. However Bailey has excessive vine growth and precipitation was enough for most fields to exacerbate this characteristic.