Peanut Pointers

need to use care when applying Gramoxone if peanuts have significant damage from thrips. You will need to correct the thrips issue before applying Gramoxone. Applying acephate with Gramoxone can help but not before the damage from Gramoxone and thrips take their toll. Always add Basagran when applying Gramoxone.

We recommend that you establish four to five plants per foot of row. If planting early, I would make sure I had five plants per row-foot across the field for TSWV management.

When it comes to in-furrow products, outside of a systemic insecticide and inoculant for nitrogen fixation, ask questions about the potential impact on peanut emergence and stand establishment before you use something. There can be issues.

To optimize yields, we need to have a good start. Starting clean with no weeds, minimizing thrips injury and making sure you have four to five plants is an outstanding start. Don’t forget that if you are in new ground or have been out of peanuts in a field for many years, inoculating for nitrogen fixation will be your most important input. We see a positive response to inoculant even in rotated fields, but inoculating peanut in new ground is critical.

A Good Variety For Deer Pressure

Since planting season is just around the corner, we begin by thinking about which variety we want to plant, where and when. I wish we knew how much TSWV pressure we would have this season ahead of time. However, being that it’s an unknown, we must plan and prepare like it could be a heavy-pressure year. Therefore, when planting early, use the varieties that has the most resistance to TSWV. Look at the

Peanut Rx to see which varieties have the most resistance.

For instance, Georgia-12Y and TifNV HiOL are both rated with five points on the risk index and are excellent choices for early season planting. I know that many people like to plant Georgia-12Y last; that way, it helps space out the harvest interval. However, it’s better to plant it first due to its resistance. This may create some issues at digging time, bunching up more to be harvested at one time versus spacing them out if you planted everything back-to-back. Therefore, try to leave a longer gap between plantings, or if your acreage is small enough, you may have time to plant all of them back-to-back and still harvest the Georgia-12Y last. The other answer, which many of you would not like, is to increase harvest capacity.

Also, if you start planting with one of these more-resistant varieties, I still recommend you apply an at-plant insecticide because, even though they have more resistance, it doesn’t mean they won’t get TSWV. So, take the necessary precautions and apply that insecticide in furrow because once that seed furrow is closed, we can’t go back and do it over again.

Georgia-12Y is also a good choice for fields that typically have heavy deer pressure. This variety would help due to the excessive vine growth, but I wouldn’t recommend planting it after the third week of May.