Peanut Pointers: May 2025

Checklist For Successful Planting

Southwest peanut growers are busy planting peanuts in May. Please make sure you check the following suggestions to ensure the successful planting and stand establishment:

■ Maintain planter (all tubes and units) and tractor.

■ Check the soil temperature from each field and make sure that the average temperature is at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit for three consecutive days without a cold front in forecast. Depending on the amount of soil residues in each field, soil temperature can vary widely.

■ Keep a small portion of seeds from each lot in a cool environment. Make sure to identify the seeds sample with the field name. If stand establishment is not successful, germination and vigor testing can be conducted on the saved seeds. Please contact your county agent for more information about the germination and vigor testing.

■ If the field is dry, irrigate one-third to one-half inch first, then plant the seeds. Planting in dry conditions followed by irrigation can reduce uniform stand emergence.

■ Make sure to incorporate herbicides with the necessary amount of irrigation (or rain) based on the herbicide label.

■ Maintain appropriate planting speed for uniform stand establishment. Take a stand count at seven days and 14 days after planting from random locations. A stand count of three to four plants per foot should be sufficient.

Key Considerations In The First 30 Days

Moisture Management and Stand Establishment: Adequate moisture is crucial for establishing a strong peanut stand. Avoid planting peanuts in dry soil. It is always better to have good moisture ahead of planting, especially if soil temperatures are hot and dry.

In non-irrigated fields, if moisture is rapidly depleting, deciding whether to plant deeper, or greater than 3 inches, to chase the moisture can be detrimental to achieving an adequate stand. In these situations, it might be better to wait for rainfall. Also, be mindful that lower seed vigor and planting deeper can increase potential emergence issues.

In irrigated fields, do not plant in hot, dry soil and then irrigate immediately as this can shock the seeds, leading to stand loss or uneven emergence. Instead, irrigate the fields before planting and again after planting to activate herbicides. Make sure to assess stands as early as five to seven days after planting to determine if a replant is needed. Replant decisions need to be made within 21 days after planting.

Weed Management: Start with weed-free fields to avoid battling weeds throughout the season. Apply pre-emergence herbicides as soon as possible after planting. Timely irrigation or rainfall is necessary to activate herbicides, preventing the initial flush of weeds and minimizing crop injury from herbicides like Valor. Remember, the minor injury from Valor is preferable to the weed issues that can arise without it.

Scouting peanut fields early and often is a great strategy to find weed escapes and make herbicide applications when needed before weeds get too large to kill.

Disease Management: In most situations, diseases like southern stem rot and leaf spots are not a problem early in the season. However, this is the time growers need to assess their risk due to varieties, planting date, crop rotation, etc., and put together a solid fungicide program that will protect their peanuts and maximize their yield potential.

Factors Affecting Thrips Protection

May is one of our busiest months on the farm, especially when it comes to peanuts. The primary pests we are dealing with, other than the fact that we have fungicide-treated seed to protect us from soil-borne pathogens, is protection from thrips (and subsequently tomato spotted wilt) and weeds. In much of the Virginia-Carolina region, thrips control can involve a two-step process. The vast majority of farmers apply a systemic insecticide in the seed furrow at planting followed by a foliar application of acephate. Regardless of what we use in the seed furrow at planting (e.g., AgLogic, Admire Pro or generic imidacloprid, Thimet or Phorate or Vydate,) a foliar application of insecticide is needed.

The duration of time needed for protection from thrips is often predicated on planting date, emergence date and environmental conditions that promote or delay rapid growth of peanut. Each spring is different, but we often need two applications to adequately protect peanuts.

Controlling weeds is also critical in May. Yield can be reduced by interference from weeds during the first month of the cropping cycle. Interference is the combination of competition for light and other resources by weeds and allelopathy from weeds that can affect peanut growth.

For folks using reduced or conservation tillage (no till or strip till) an effective burndown is essential. We need to start clean, and in reduced-tillage systems herbicides are the key. It takes at least two sprays to get winter weeds and emerged summer weeds under control. Residual herbicides applied with non-selective foliar-absorbed herbicides is essential in many fields.

In North Carolina and Virginia, some growers run into dogfennel both before and after the crop is planted. Making sure dogfennel is suppressed in the fall and is killed as well as possible before the peanut crop emerges is extremely important. There are no herbicide options that are completely effective once peanuts emerge.

For conventional tillage, making sure weeds are dead with tillage, especially in wet springs when weeds can get covered up with soil or re-root, is important. In those springs, applying herbicide before primary tillage begins can make a big difference. The last thing we want to do is start the cropping cycle with a significant number of 12-inch weeds present across the field.

Of course, we rely heavily on herbicides to suppress weeds and protect yields. Overlapping residuals early in the cropping cycle protects peanuts from weed interference and takes the pressure off postemergence herbicides.

If I had it my way, which I do not in most cases, pendimethalin would be incorporated uniformly across all peanut acres that are conventionally tilled. Then, a solid preemergence herbicide program would be applied just after peanuts are planted. This program would include flumioxazin (Valor SX and other formulations) mixed with a Group 15 herbicide. In some situations, Valor SX and a Group 15 herbicide can be mixed with Brake. I would consider paraquat (Gramoxone and other formulations) applied within three weeks after peanuts emerge along with Basagran and a Group 15 or other herbicide with residual activity against key weeds. In the Southeast, folks would likely use Storm rather than Basagran. Then, based on what slips through and what you have experienced historically, a contact herbicide like Storm, Ultra Blazer or Cobra, and in some cases Cadre/Impose, would be in order. Based on your history with weeds, it might be good to include more residual.

So, I’ve spent a lot of your money at this point. My experience is that herbicides pay for themselves in the vast majority of fields.  Being intensive with herbicides early in the season and overlapping residual herbicides brings the most to the table. We need to control weeds all season, but the early season control sets us up for greater success.

Reducing TSWV Risk

As planting season gets underway, here are a few reminders about Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. Disease pressure was pretty light in 2024, but that doesn’t mean it will be this year. It all depends on the weather and growing conditions.

As more TSWV-resistant varieties become available, planting one of these varieties will give you the best possible opportunity to combat this disease. Two varieties that have been out for a while now and have high levels of TSWV resistance are Georgia-12Y or TifNV-HighO/L.

Our highest yields are from earlier planting dates such as the end of April or first week of May. This is true if we dodge TSWV and do our due diligence to battle against diseases. We know that planting mid-May seems to be the least risk of TSWV; however, we also must have moisture to germinate seeds. Therefore, we must manage as best we can and try to reduce risk.

Now we know the earlier we plant, the lower the leaf spot pressure, but white mold risk increases. Georgia-12Y helps because this variety has the lowest white mold rating. I would still encourage you to use an at-plant insecticide regardless of variety when planting early.

Also, plant nematode-susceptible fields first. TifNV-HighO/L has significant TSWV resistance, which would allow you to plant early. The sooner you plant those fields, the better so that harvest can happen before nematodes build up and peak in the fall.

Remember the other factors listed in Peanut Rx that can also help reduce TSWV risk. Those include planting date, plant stand, at-plant insecticide, twin rows and reduced tillage. Also, Thimet 20G at planting is another way of reducing TSWV pressure. Once planting is over, it will be next year before you can try to prevent TSWV again.