Research conducted at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Education Center in Suffolk, Va. shows 6  seeds per foot delivers the best return for peanut farmers in Virginia and Carolina region.

In a paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Center, Joseph Oakes, a postdoctoral research associate working in Dr. Maria Baolota’s program at the Tidewater center, said plant population influences yield, disease pressure, insect pressure and plant size.

In the research conducted in 2014 and 2015 , Balota, associate professor of crop physiology,  and her team planted four commercial varieties and five breeding lines to see how the responded to four different seeding rates: 1  seed  per foot, 3  seeds per foot, 6  seeds per foot and 9  seeds per foot. Thrips and disease pressure were also  measured

Throughout the growing season, pod, yield and grading characteristics were determined at physiological maturity. The study continues this year under the guidance of Balota.

“Significant differences in yield and value were observed among plant populations in both years of the study, though the population with the highest yield varied over the two years,” Oakes explained at the APRES meeting.  “Overall yield increased with plant population, but tended to level off at a certain population.”

In both years, tomato spotted wilt virus decreased as plant populations increased, while sclerotinia blight increased as population increased, the research reveals. However, Oakes said there was no significant difference in tomato spotted wilt virus between the 6  seeds per foot planting rate and the 9  seed per foot planting rate. Both had the least amount of tomato spotted wilt in the plots.

In addition, results in 2014 showed no significant difference in yield between the 6 seeds per foot and the 9 seeds per foot planting rate. “The 6  seeds per foot seeding rate had the lowest amount of tomato spotted wilt and one of our highest yields, so that’s probably our ideal population,” Oakes said.

Oakes noted that in 2014 the variety Bailey delivered the highest yield at the 6  seeds per foot planting rate while the variety Wynne showed no significant difference between the 9 seeds per foot planting rate and 6  seeds per foot planting rate. The same rang true for the variety Emery.

“In general, the yield of the individual varieties performed similarly to each other,” Oakes explained. “This study will provide much needed clarification to peanut producers as to the proper seeding rate for peanut in the Virginia-Carolina region.”