I checked several samples of 06Gs, TifNV-HGs, and one set of 52s. They are all showing maturity in the mid-140 range for the April-planted irrigated crop. Even for DG913, we had several reports last year that they were early; so far, the ones I have looked at have been on time. I spoke with Dr. Monfort and some surrounding county agents, and I am not hearing much about them being early.
Irrigated:
Most irrigated peanuts planted from April to early May are on time (140 to 148 Days) for all varieties (so far). Except for GA-22MPR, the ones I have checked are looking at 150+; I have not looked at GA-12Ys yet, but I should have some coming in the next week. Disease and/or weather can change maturity. I’ve seen a lot of leaf spot over the past two weeks; some fields have 30+ days to go, so please keep an eye on them. We have tightened several spray intervals to try and stay on top it. The past few mornings have been a little cooler, but it’s still hot and humid. I have a feeling this extreme heat will affect our crop; don’t be surprised to see some pops, etc., in some fields. Once we move into mid-May to June, maturity will likely be a little different because of the weather we experienced at planting and throughout the season.
Non-Irrigated:
The non-irrigated crop will be more of a mixed bag at all planting dates. They are always highly dependent on rain, and several around here got it while others didn’t. The heat and drought will heavily skew dryland maturity. This will make it tough to decide what to do. I would encourage you to assess all of your non-irrigated fields to see what they have.
Suggested Tips:
For Dryland, let’s start looking a little early, mainly to get a sense of whether the crop is split and whether most peanuts set early or late. Given this year’s weather, I don’t think you can take a blanket approach to digging. I know a lot of you want to get started a little early and then go by planting date, but that could be challenging this year. We can always do a quick check to see what the optimal next field is. I hope you already do this, but I would segregate irrigated and dryland peanuts because you don’t want to risk contaminating good peanuts with dryland peanuts that might have aflatoxin. A few bad pods can drop a trailer to SEG 2 or SEG3.