Clemson Extension announces 2025 Peanut, Cotton, Vegetable and Fruit Field Day

The annual Clemson Extension Peanut, Cotton, Vegetable and Fruit Field Day will be held Sept. 4, 2025, at the Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, South Carolina. — The annual Clemson Extension Peanut, Cotton, Vegetable and Fruit Field Day will be held Sept. 4, 2025, at the Edisto Research and Education Center.

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August 25, 2025August 25, 2025

The annual Clemson Extension Peanut, Cotton, Vegetable and Fruit Field Day will be held Sept. 4, 2025, at the Edisto Research and Education Center, 64 Research Road, Blackville, South Carolina 29817.

Two field tours – the Peanut Field Tour and the Vegetable and Fruit Field Tour – will run from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Participants will choose one tour to follow. A trade show organized by CU-CAT will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will include door prize drawings. A Cotton Field Tour will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Attendees can earn South Carolina Pesticide Credits, Continuing Education Units and Certified Crop Adviser credits to enhance their professional credentials and expertise.

What to expect?

Peanut Field Tour

Agriculture technology in peanuts

Kendall Kirk, Clemson Extension precision agriculture engineer, will talk about technologies that can help farmers optimize resource use and improve efficiency. Kirk will be accompanied by representatives from Michelin Agriculture to discuss research findings and the latest in ag tire technology opportunities for farmers.

New and current varieties

Dan Anco, Clemson Extension peanut specialist, will discuss how selecting which peanut variety to grow impacts how productive a field can be. He will discuss how different characteristics shape how tailored management can maximize harvest results.

Spray combinations

Anco will address how spray combinations can help peanut farmers save time and cut fuel costs and the importance of choosing compatible products to get the best results and avoid crop damage. Participants will visit demonstration plots to see where new growth regulator products were applied with different fungicide and herbicide combinations.

Split seeds at planting – Year 2

Planting is a time of new potential for the year ahead and getting the season off to a strong start. Participants will learn how split seed affects establishment or yield downstream when it’s time to pick. Plots from the second year of this study will be on display. The results so far may surprise some participants.

Effect of DRAs on peanut weed control

Mike Marshall, Clemson Extension weed specialist, will discuss a study that looked at various peanut herbicide programs with and without a DRA, or drift control adjuvant. This study showed that the DRA’s did not impact weed control.

Toward safer peanuts: reducing allergenic proteins and aflatoxins through breeding and biocontrol

Sachin Rustgi, Clemson molecular breeder at the Pee Dee REC, will be joined by graduate students Hrishikesh Ingole and Zachary Jones, who will present their research “Toward Safer Peanuts: Reducing Allergenic Proteins and Aflatoxins through Breeding and Biocontrol.”

The scientists will share progress toward developing peanuts with lower allergen levels using traditional plant breeding and advanced genome editing techniques. They will discuss how they have tested these new peanut varieties to confirm reduced levels of key allergenic proteins and a lower potential to trigger allergic reactions.

They will also provide updates on how peanut breeding and domestication have influenced allergen levels over time, and how future hotter climates might affect the stability of these low-allergen traits. In addition, they will highlight their innovative biocontrol approach aimed at reducing aflatoxin contamination, further improving the safety of peanut products.

Market situations and policy update

Nathan Smith, Clemson Extension ag economist, will give updates on the current markets and how new policies could affect South Carolina growers.

Vegetable and Fruit Field Tour

Sweet potato breeding updates

Phillip Wadl, research geneticist in charge of the Sweet Potato Breeding Program at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, will give an update on the various sweet potato breeding studies he is conducting.

Iron biofortification in collard greens

Arshdeep Kaur, a doctoral student working with Bhupinder Jatana, a horticulture assistant professor, will talk about how combining iron fertilizers with commonly used insecticides in a single tank mix can produce nutrient-rich vegetables with little to no extra management burden on producers. Kaur and Jatana will discuss the interactions and feasibility of using the tank mix of iron fertilizers with pesticides for iron biofortification in collards and pesticide efficacy.

Nutrient management and anaerobic soil disinfestation in organic watermelons

Vegetable crop scientists Bhupinder Singh Jatana, Vasanth Kumar and Ashok Sah will discuss an organic transition project that uses carbon-based organic materials for nutrient and pest management in organic production systems.

Nutrient and weed management remain significant challenges in organic vegetable farming. Sah, Kumar and Jatana will discuss using agricultural byproducts to improve the crop nutrient use efficiency and weed management through anaerobic soil disinfestation in organic production.

Unlocking the potential of cover crop-driven anaerobic soil disinfestation for weed control and collard green productivity

Mahmoud Rady, Brian Ward and Matt Cutulle will discuss research involving coupling anaerobic soil disinfestation with cover crops to create an eco-friendly approach to bolstering collard green productivity while effectively managing weeds.

This presentation will focus on making anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) more sustainable and affordable by using cover crops such as sunnhemp and sorghum-sudangrass instead of traditional industrial inputs like chicken manure and molasses. Results show that cover crops suppress weeds by up to 90% and improve collard green growth by more than 150%, offering vegetable growers in the southeastern U.S. a practical, low-cost strategy to manage weeds, improve soil health and reduce environmental impact.

Synergistic approach of cover cropping and reduced tillage on collard green weed management and yield

Rady, Ward and Cutulle will discuss the effects of cover cropping and reduced tillage on weed management and yields in collard greens.

This presentation will highlight how summer cover crops such as sunnhemp and sorghum-sudangrass, combined with reduced tillage, can effectively suppress weeds and improve leafy greens production.

Cover crops contribute by sequestering carbon, competing with weeds for resources and releasing natural compounds that inhibit weed germination. Reduced tillage preserves soil health and promotes long-term sustainability. The study evaluates how these practices influence weed control and enhance crop productivity under southeastern U.S. conditions.

Model-based spray programs for bacterial spot management in southeastern peach orchards

Sherin Paul, a graduate student studying under the guidance of Hehe Wang, plant bacteriologist and pathologist, will introduce the development and validation of a web-based disease risk alert system to guide the southeastern peach spray program based on weather conditions. The purpose is to reduce the number of conventional pesticide spray applications sustainably.

Use of biopesticides for the management of peach bacterial spot

Junaed Ahmed, a graduate student also studying under Wang, will introduce the development of biopesticide-based spray programs to manage peach bacterial spot.

Cotton Field Tour

Weed management in cotton

Marshall will talk about weed control programs in a new trait cotton technology, Axant Cotton.

Insect pests in cotton

Jeremy Greene, Clemson Extension entomologist, will discuss safe methods to manage some of the most common insects in South Carolina cotton fields.

Cotton nitrogen fertility management

Bhupinder Farmaha, Clemson Extension nutrient management specialist, will discuss why using the correct amount of nitrogen is essential to improve root growth and yield in cotton.