A parallel disease to soybean rust is peanut rust, which overwinters in much of the same parts of south Florida where soybean rust would be found in the off season. It would need the same weather patterns to push it into the southern Atlantic state.

At the North Carolina consultants' association conference a couple of years ago, I asked  NCSU plant pathologists how often peanut rust was a problem or potential problem in North Carolina. One said, "maybe every 4 years."

Granted, peanuts get sprayed with fungicides on a fairly tight schedule. But you still have disruptions in schedules due to rain and such, and there also are people who are never quite on schedule. Enough treatments are delayed or missed that you would have evident leaf spot, for example. But hardly anyone ever mentions peanut rust, at least north of the Florida panhandle, and even then it's not mentioned much in those counties.

With my peanut newsletter, I may go for 3 years without anyone in Georgia even mentioning peanut rust. It may be around but not enough of it that anyone would be concerned to the point that they might mention it when I ask about crop, pest and disease conditions.