Question:
Have you ever seen any difference in the germ of an extra large peanut versus say a regular size peanut. Reason I’m asking, we screen off the extra larges in our sheller and we seem to be getting a lot. Just curious if you had any insight on that.
Jordan:
I suspect a larger peanut would have greater variation in stand establishment in the field. Harder to get uniform pull on the vacuum on the plate and some gaps. I also would think that the larger seed might not have received adequate calcium and moisture at critical times. Under the same conditions, a smaller seed might have optimum physiology than a larger seed. But if you do a germination test with plenty of moisture and optimum temperature, you might not see much difference. I’m going to look through the literature and see if someone has looked at this.
I was asked if I could use super extra large for NC 20 because seed will be short. I was concerned about getting a good stand just because of seed size and issues with the planter. Not the germination. Just seems like the larger seed would prevent some cells from getting a seed.
I found a few pieces of information. Best I can tell a large seed will germinate as well as medium or small seeds. Likely better than small seeds (because there was a reason that are small due to stress or immaturity.) The only limitation I see to large seeds is uniformity in stands when planting large seeds if each cell on the planter does not get a seed. Years ago we could not plant the variety Spain with modern planters. It was too big. We had to use an old Cole Planter.