My samples from Whiteville and Lewiston suggest the crop may be early this year compared with 2021. We will have a better feel for this during the first week of September. Maria Balota sampled peanuts in Virginia this week and did not see indications that the crop was earlier. Mitch Smith found that peanuts in Pitt county were not early. Billy Barrow (Bertie) had a sample suggesting that it was about 3 weeks away, and Lance Grimes (Martin) indicated that he would have some peanuts ready to dig soon, in part because of planting date.
My goal with the attached information and the following e-mail text was to get NC agents to take a look on the early side just in case peanuts are earlier in 2022 than you might typically expect. No promise that the crop is early, everywhere.
Jordan E-mail on August 23:
I pod blasted peanuts from Whiteville and Lewiston today (collected August 22 and 23, respectively,) and it looks like the 2022 crop is going to be 7-10 days earlier than 2021. I have attached the images from 2022 and images from the peanut extension portal from 2021. Note that this is not entirely a direct comparison (August 22 and 23 samples in 2022 versus September 1 and 2 samples in 2022.) Also, the sample at Lewiston was from peanuts planted in mid-May (2021) rather than early May (2022.) None-the-less, I think our crop will be on the early side. This is just a reminder that sampling in early September could be important. It wouldn't be too early to sample some peanuts next week, maybe even have a clinic if you can. The sample at Whiteville was not surprising. Lewiston's sample was surprising. I need 3 more weeks at Whiteville to have some peanuts in place for our field day. This sample points to around 2 weeks. Yikes!
These were my first samples for 2022, and I am quite rusty at laying them on the chart (well, I'm almost always inconsistent.) And some folks say that what I say about maturity is a week late!