A website from UGA Cooperative Extension

I attended a Peanut Maturity Clinic yesterday in Tifton. Our peanut agronomist stressed that checking fields this year will be important. Some fields, especially dryland, are running early while others are on time or running late. We had our first sample come into the office Wednesday. The peanuts are around 120 days old and they could dig starting next week. Things to consider when starting to dig are looking at how the peanuts are doing inside the shell, are the vines healthy and what does the weather looks like in the future.

maturity board

The picture above is the sample that was brought in. Judging by this sample there are not many peanuts on the back end so it is important not to miss any on the front end. After cracking some open, the peanuts are developing oil spots and look good.

Below are some tips on taking a sample and talking about maturity for different varieties shared by another county agent.

SAMPLING PROCEDURES FOR HULL SCRAPE

Carefully lift at least 5 plants from a minimum of three representative areas in a field.  DIG IN THE AREA WHERE THE PLANTS WERE LIFTED AND CHECK FOR ANY PEANUTS THAT COME OFF.  If you find some older mature pods in the soil bring these with the sample.  The pro­jected digging date is only as accurate as the sample used to represent the field.  Once the plants are collected in the field, approximately 200 to 220 nuts should be picked off individual plants for the actual hull scrape sample.  This sample will be pressure blasted and checked on the peanut maturity profile board.Each field should be sampled at approximately 115-120 days after planting.  A second sample should be run approximately 10 days before the date predicted by the first check to determine if the peanuts are maturing normally.  This process has proven to be an effective and reliable meth­od to project up to two weeks in advance the optimum digging date for peanuts.

WHEN TO DIG?

In general, the most reliable profiles for projecting the optimum harvest interval are those profiles taken 2-3 weeks before harvest and before the leading pods have reached the final stages of the black maturity class.  For medium maturity runner varieties (Georgia-06G and others), this may be achieved by taking an initial profile between 115-120 days after planting.  These profiles should prove best for ranking fields, and follow-up should be used to verify that maturation is proceeding normally.  Twin-row peanuts will frequently yield a greater percentage of early-set pods. These pods will be reflected in the profile, and may give a slightly premature indication of optimum maturity in some instances.  Pay particular attention to health of the pod stems on those reproductive sites having the earliest set pods, as well as days of age.  Rarely have we seen a medium maturity runner crop at risk from maturity loss in less than 125 days after planting.

 

Peanut Maturity Range**

Medium Medium-Late
Georgia-06G               TUFRunner ‘297’ Georgia-12Y
Georgia Greener              TUFRunner ‘511’ Georgia-13M
Georgia-098                TUFRunner ‘727’ Georgia -14N
FloRun ‘107’                        Tifguard Florida-07
FloRun ‘157’

**Range  may vary depending on planting date, rainfall, soil temperature, and other factors even for the same variety in a

 

 

Posted in: