Examining the effects of varying fungicide spray water volumes on the management of foliar peanut diseases

Foliar peanut disease management is often best achieved through the use of nozzles that produce fine droplet sizes delivered at high (> 20 GPA) spray volumes. The objective of this research was to examine how different nozzle types and spray volumes affect the management of various fungicide classes with different plant mobilities. Leaf spot started early at 41 DAP with final scale ratings ranging 5 to 9 across all plots by 125 DAP. No significant differences were observed in leaf spot (LS) AUD PC or yield among nozzle types (p =0.89, 0.39; respectively) or spray volumes (p=0.97, 0.52; respectively). Differences were observed among fungicide treatments for LS AUDPC (p<0.01) and yield (p<0.01), however, no interactions were observed for nozzle type or spray volume with the fungicide treatments (p > 0.10). These results indicate that fungicide chemistry is more important in disease control than nozzle type and/or spray volume. Further research is needed to confirm this trend over multiple years as well as further comparisons with nozzle types and spray volumes recommended for disease management in peanut.