LORIS, S.C. (WBTW) — At Tyler Farms in Loris, fifth generation farmer Trenton Tyler said that his father, brother, and himself are worried for how their crop will turn out come harvest time in September after 15 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Debby.
He said that excess water is an issue as it can make the peanuts rot. But their biggest concern is having disease pressure of molds and funguses build up on the foliage of the plant, killing it completely.
Tyler said peanuts prefer dry and humid soil. He said Horry County has some of the best soil for peanuts, cotton and tobacco.
But with all of the rain from Tropical Storm Debby, he said moisture form the rain is now being trapped in the soil by the vines of the peanut bush by not allowing any sunlight to get to the soil to dry.
”What we’re having to do now is increase our spray programs and hope for some sunshiny, breezy, pretty days is what we need,” he said. “When you dig them, all the nuts, they’re just going to fall off. You’re just going to have a vine with a root with no peanuts on it is what you’ll have there. Or just stay in the ground is what they do because they, basically, the plants die and and it’s just let go of everything it’s connected to.”
He said there’s no real way of knowing just how bad all his crop will be on his 460-acre peanut farm until September, but he can gauge based on the leaves as best as he can.
Tyler said some of his peanuts have been drowned out completely, shriveling up and rotting. He thinks he will lose more mature nuts than any other, making his family possibly wanting to harvest earlier than anticipated.
“Like I say, if the if the bush is deteriorating so fast, there’s no need to wait. We just need to go ahead and harvest and save what we can save,” Tyler said. “You know, it’s pretty much what we’re doing with our other crops, but we’re hoping these peanuts will buy some time closer to our maturity dates.”
On top of having the concern of losing his crop, he said he’s also put into a hard financial situation having to get more sprays to help prevent the disease pressure from occurring.
Tyler’s also worrying about not being able to sell enough to distributors in Nichols, the Pee Dee, Mullins and Hemingway for peanut butter, roasted peanuts and peanut candies.
Tyler said peanuts are very respondent to the amount of time they’re in the soil, making it a tricky situation when hiccups in the growing process occur. He said losing his peanuts will harm his yield and grade, but will continue to do what he does for years to come.
“I mean, this is all I know. I’ve done it all my life, and my family’s done it for generations,” he said. “I love it. It’s hard work, but I love to do it. Nobody else really wants to do this kind of stuff, so somebody’s got to.”
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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter , Facebook or Instagram , and read more of her work here .
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