Peanut Blasting Equipment 
Peanut Maturity Board
It is almost harvest time for peanuts in Southeast Georgia. When checking peanuts for maturity we use a method called peanut blasting. This method uses a pressure washer with a rotating tip to “blast” the outer layer of the peanut shell off the nuts to reveal different colors to indicate maturity. The blasted peanuts are then laid out onto a peanut maturity board then separated and grouped by the different colors. The black colored peanuts are the most mature followed by brown, orange, and yellow.
A good way to check a field is to take 3-4 samples from different parts of the field. When pulling up plants for a sample, remove at least 5 plants from the row to make a sample. Make sure to keep each sample separate by the section of the field it was removed. The next step is to remove the all peanuts from one plant from each section of the field to get an average representation and place them into a cup. Continue pulling off peanuts from each sample location until you have 200-250 individual peanuts which is approximately enough to fill up a 32 oz cup. Take the cup and pour it into a peanut blasting basket and blast the peanuts for approximately 1-2 minutes until the outer shell has been removed. Place the blasted field sample onto a peanut maturity board and match the colors to find out the approximate harvest date.
Contact the Evans County Extension office at 912-739-1292 for more information about peanut blasting or to set up an appointment to have some peanuts checked for maturity.
