• The new 2019 Virginia Peanut Production Guide is available at this link https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/SPES/SPES-67/SPES-67.html
• This guide describes peanut production practices including cultivars, planting, management, and harvest. Under management, information is provided on the optimum time for nutrient and irrigation applications; describes rotations effect on yield; soil preparation, etc. It also identifies major pests for the region including weeds, insects and disease, and how those to be controlled.
• Archived Peanut Production Guides can be accessed from: http://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/peanut-production/index.html

Friday, Sep 7th, a pod-blasting clinic was organized in Windsor, Isle of Wight County in Virginia. Farmers brought samples for maturity evaluation from 40 fields, in majority from the IOW but a few were from Suffolk and Southampton. Samples were taken from fields totaling a minimum of 3100 acres of peanut. Based on the mesocarp color, we identified that one sample was ready to dig, 12 in a week, 15 in a week and a half (10 days), 8 in two weeks, and 4 in three weeks or more. This indicated that two thirds of these fields were ready for digging after this week and after the hurricane Florence has passed.

Peanut varieties planted were in majority Bailey and Sullivan with only very few acres of Wynne and Emery, the last being a new cultivar just released in 2015. On these checked fields, farmers did not irrigate and only one farmer used Apogee, a growth regulator that could have affected maturity. Defoliation due to leaf spot was almost absent in all fields, as it was rootworm damage.

The earliest to be dug, in no more than a week, were fields planted during the first week of May and receiving constant rainfall in June, July, and August. Note that precipitation received in July and August exceeded by far this year the multi-annual average for most fields. Some fields planted in mid-May and constantly rained out, also showed digging approaching in 7-10 days (picture below). The only early May plantings a little behind, 10-14 days from digging, were fields with a dry June, regardless if for the rest of the summer they were wet; and the majority of fields planted in mid-May. Based on the color charts, the fields planted during the last week of May could wait three weeks or more before digging. Meanwhile, several other pod-blasting clinics will be organized to help farmers decide when and what fields to start digging with.

This result came to no surprise. It has been determined that Bailey requires about 2700 °F heat units (or GDD) to reach optimum maturity. The Cotton – Peanut Infonet online service provided by Virginia Tech here https://webipm.ento.vt.edu/cgi-bin/infonet1.cgi shows that by Sep 7th peanut planted on May 1st received 2649 °F in Suffolk, 2637 °F at Capron in Southampton, 2718 °F at Skippers in Greensville, and 2640 °F at Waverly in Sussex. Researchers at the University of Georgia determined that every event of rainfall and irrigation received by a crop at one inch or above has an effect equivalent with 10 °F heat units and can speed up peanut maturity. If so, 100 or 200 heat units are to be added to those measured by the thermometer.  Indeed, under the conditions of this year early May planted peanuts are expected to be ready for digging 7 to 10 days sooner than last year.

Peanut Extension activities will continue this Fall. Interested to see what future peanut varieties look like? Then come here Martin Field Day Flyer. Or maybe willing to learn more on peanut production from peanut specialists, and interested in finding when is the optimum time to harvest your peanuts? Then you are welcome here VA PEANUT Upcoming Events – 2018.

A Peanut Tour will take place at the Tidewater AREC (1045 Hare Road, Suffolk, VA, 23437) on Aug 15. Presentations include precision irrigation and crop stress sensing, weed control and tank mixes, and disease and insect management.  Meetings with the new Extension Agents in the Southeastern region will be facilitated. A new rotary peanut harvester by AMADAS will be displayed. The flyer with more details is here. Aug 15_Flyer(5)  Please do not forget to call (757-807-6538) or email (mbalota@vt.edu) if you plan to attend. Hope to see you soon!

Research data, such as those here Seeding Rate-May 2018, showed that saving seed at planting does not return high yields or economic profit. To achieve high yields, we recommend planting 5 or 6 seeds per foot of row, assuming a germination of 80% and above. This is in particular necessary for large seeded cultivars like Emery and Wynne, and under irrigation.  If germination is lower than 80%, which may be the case this spring for some seed lots of Wynne and Sullivan, 6 to 7 seeds are safe to plant but nothing above that. At least, we have not recently tested or heard of a benefit to increase the seeding rate above 7.

There are concerns that imidacloprid-based insecticides for thrips control may negatively affect Rhizobia in inoculants when tank-mixed and applied in the furrow when plating peanut. As we are just a week (or less) from starting peanut planting in Virginia, I thought this issue be addressed for the farmer’s peace of mind if they decide to mix Optimize Lift inoculant with Admire-Pro insecticide for in-furrow seed treatment. I personally have not looked into this issue before, because we have not seen any effects in research plots or received complaints from farmers.  However, we will research this aspect in 2018.

Meanwhile, colleague Dan Anco, Peanut Specialist at Clemson University, tested the effect of different tank-mixtures for in-furrow applications on the nodule number and peanut yield in 2015 and 2017.  Graciously, Dan shared this information included in the In_furrow tank mixes tables.  The results clearly show no effect of mixing Optimize Lift with Admire-Pro on peanut yield in both years (Tables 1 and 2), even when the number of nodules from this mixture appeared to be reduced by the use of Admire-Pro in 2017 (Table 2). David Jordan, Peanut Specialist at North Carolina State University, reported similar findings Peanut Science Inoculant CFTGM Peanut Inoculant.