
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994                    TAG: 9406210152 
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN                     PAGE: 05    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Jody R. Snider 
DATELINE: 940622                                 LENGTH: ISLE OF WIGHT

PEANUT AND COTTON OUTLOOK REMAINS CLOUDED

{LEAD} Although all the cards haven't been played out yet the deck is already starting to stack up against area farmers, who have watched some cotton and peanut fields fail to make a stand.

In the peanut fields, about 20 percent had to be replanted in Isle of Wight.

{REST} In the cotton fields, seed laid dormant for three weeks before making a stand.

And once that cotton was up, it died, said Robert Goerger, Isle of Wight County Extension agent.

Goerger said not enough cotton was damaged to warrant any replanting, however.

In some fields of Isle of Wight farmer Bobby Darden, the call to replant cotton was a close call.

``The cotton stayed in the ground three weeks before it came up,'' he said. ``A lot of it died, but not enough to go back and replant,'' he said.

In the peanut fields, the story was different.

Darden said he replanted 80 of his 340 acres of peanuts.

Poor seed peanuts from last year's crop and a cool spring have caused many area farmers to replant, Goerger said.

``That means it has to have every day of maturity it can get,'' Goerger said.

Although the normal planting season for peanuts begins May 1, some farmers got a head start by planting early in April.

``Farmers who planted in April hit the nail on the head,'' Darden said.

Darden wasn't one of them.

``Those that I replanted have come up fine,'' he said. ``It all looks good now. But in May, the ground was cold and the temperatures were down at night. And peanut seed has to have a certain amount of warmth to germinate.''

Goerger said that extreme dry conditions last year caused the seed saved from last year's crop to be inferior in germination.

``But everything that will come up is up now,'' Goerger said. ``It's not as good as we may want in every field, because there are still some fields that are missing spots.''

Goerger said that may mean that some plants will produce larger plants than normal.

In fact, drought conditions this year are beginning to surface two weeks earlier than last year, noted a news brief from the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

``While thunderstorms across part of the state helped last week, many farmers got nothing,'' the report said. ``Farmers reported topsoil moisture ratings were very short across 69 percent of Virginia as of June 10.

``We have a few things going against us already in the fields,'' Goerger said. ``But it's not really a terrible start. Things are looking pretty decent in the fields,'' he said.

Darden said he is optimistic about the peanut and cotton crop.

``Peanuts is a hardy, unpredictable crop,'' he said. ``And cotton, once it gets growing, it can withstand almost anything.''

Goerger said he's also optmistic.

``Conditions aren't ideal. But anything could happen,'' he said.

by CNB