While it is still too early to answer all the questions that go along with identification of a new virus, according to Scott Adkins, a research plant pathologist with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS), based in Fort Pierce, FL, there is relatively good news. Groundnut ringspot virus appears to be closely related to tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), another malady that is commonly found on tomatoes and peanuts in the southern U.S.
GRSV was originally identified in peanut (groundnut) in South Africa and tomato in Brazil, but to date it has only been found on tomatoes in the southern part of the Florida peninsula. Adkins, who works at the U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, says efforts are gearing up to test other species for the virus in Florida. “We are still trying to define where GRSV is and what it is affecting in Florida,” Adkins says. “We don’t have a full story yet, so there are not that many answers.”
Spotting GRSV
Potential Plan Of Attack
“We’re in the very early stages of the game and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Adkins says. “If GRSV looks like it has a toehold this fall on tomatoes, it would be easy to put TSWV strategies in place to manage it. TSWV hasn’t been a big problem this year, so growers haven’t really been working with those techniques because they haven’t needed to. But again, it depends on if GRSV will be a problem, which we don’t know yet.”