Florida Plants Blamed for Kentucky Blue Mold

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com US, Thursday, January 18, 2007 01/19/2007

The Council for Burley Tobacco in Lexington, Kentucky, is advising growers to stop buying tobacco mini-plugs from Florida in order to help prevent outbreaks of blue mold, according to a gcnewsgazette.com report. Dean M. Wallace, executive director of the Council, said that early outbreaks in Kentucky during the past three years strongly suggested that blue mold was introduced from Florida, and not by wind blown spores. It had been well documented that the 2006 blue mold epidemic was directly linked to mini-plugs brought into Kentucky from Florida, he said. Wallace estimates that the 2006 blue mold invasion cost Kentucky farmers at least $7.3 million in lost production and increased chemical costs. Enditem