Peanut acres across the state (South Carolina) are about 50% planted this week. The next couple days with nights in the 40s will bring slower growing conditions, but this should be short lived and warmer temperatures coming in after will help keep growth moving. Rain moving through the state is bringing much needed moisture both for crop growth and for herbicide activation, more on this to follow.

In earlier planted fields thrips injury is starting to become visible as small pin-prick scarring in the leaf. When fresh, these appear white or yellow and become more tan brown with age and healing. When severe, lesions can blend together and shoot tip necrosis/death can occur. Valor injury is also common to see early when seedlings are emerging, and while it can look bad at times as if half or all the low lying leaves have been killed off, peanut usually regrows without much problems and this has not been linked with a negative impact on yield so long as it is applied within 2 days of planting at recommended rates (3 fl oz).

Occasionally some seed lots have seeds with more splits than others. As with the eye, it may at first look to be more of a concern than it ends up being. The pictures of seed in the attached file illustrate this. It is easy to see where the splits are due to the white inside of the cotyledon standing out against the seed treatment/coat color, but overall some "quick and dirty" image processing estimates this to only be between 2.5 and 3.5% splits. An increase in splits could possibly be the result of pods that were drier during shelling. On the flip side, increased moisture during shelling decreases splits, but the downfall there is that too much moisture in the seed can negatively affect germination. A split impacts possible germination by separating the energy source for the growing seedling. If a split has the embryo intact, it may still germinate, though it would have a half tank of gas to get above ground compared to one with both cotyledons still attached. Splits without the embryo are finished. Manageable amounts of seed splits like these, as long as the quality is there, should not require changes in seeding rates.