Question:

I’d like to get your opinion on digging timing. I have some peanuts planted April 27 that are past ready to be dug, but we’re nowhere near ready to harvest them yet because we’re still harvesting tobacco.

What are your thoughts on digging them now and potentially leaving them on the ground for up to three weeks before harvest? My thinking is that I’d rather dig them on time and have a better chance of getting them out of the ground than continue waiting and risk losing yield from pods shedding in the ground. At the same time, I’m concerned about leaving them inverted that long and potentially ending up with Seg. 2 peanuts from post-digging damage.

I’d appreciate your opinion on which risk you think is greater.

Jordan:

Great question. Wish I knew weather patterns for the next month. That would help but impossible to know. If you have good leaf spot control (very few lesions) you have a lot of flexibility. In my experience, once you hit optimum maturity you have about 3 weeks before you begin seeing a major yield loss if you can’t dig for 3 weeks. I believe the numbers but that is scary, and those numbers could vary based on a lot of unknowns. If you have some leaf spot but can keep defoliation below 40%, you have similar flexibility. But if you have a lot of disease (most leaves with leaf spot) and some defoliation at optimum digging, things go downhill fast. If you have 20% defoliation this week, you will have 40% next week and 80% two weeks from now. Once you hit 40% defoliation, you need to dig ASAP no matter what the maturity is.

Vines and pods with good weather (dry, mostly) can sit in the windrow for 3 weeks. If you get wet then dry then wet, you will run into pod loss from the windrow by 3 weeks, but especially if you go past that.

So, lots to digest. Tobacco is driving the decision which makes sense. Maybe let them sit for 1-2 weeks after optimum maturity to get you lined up with when the peanut combine can get there.

Even if you feel jammed up, try not to dig or pick too fast. While it varies by equipment, for every MPH above the manufacturer’s optimum speed for digging, you lose 200-250 pounds per acre. I suspect that if the peanuts are past optimum maturity, that loss could be even greater.

For picking, for the ground speed to increase, all the other components of the picker have to increase. If the pods dry a lot in the field and are over mature, you will likely get more sound splits and LSKs just from physical damage. Picking dry peanuts quickly will affect quality.

But I know realities on the farm drive what you have to do.

Not sure if you are growing seed peanuts. If so, they need to be dug just prior to but not past optimum maturity. They also need to be picked “gently.”

Hope this helps.

Had a question about spider mites from down your way. Portal is what we recommend. Make sure mites are active.

I had an article in V-C Peanut News that includes some of this, especially the leaf spot/digging dates.