Row Pattern and Seeding Rate Effect On Stand, Yield, and Disease Incidence in Peanut.

Achieving an optimum plant stand is important in peanut production to minimize costs and occurrence of diseases while maximizing yield and grade.  Higher plant populations do not increase yield and can increase white mold while the denser canopy makes it more difficult to get fungicide sprays to the base of the plant.  Reduced plant stands lead to greater risk of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) infection.  Thus, finding the appropriate seeding rate that leads to an optimum plant stand is necessary to maximize profit.  An experiment to evaluate three seeding rates in both single and twin row planting pattern took place with seven cultivars in Plains, GA in 2008-2009.  Twin rows (average = 5900 kg ha^-1) resulted in higher yields than single rows (4990 kg ha^-1) in both years.  An interaction occurred between seeding rate and variety for yield in both years.  The only variety displaying a statistical yield difference between seeding rates in 2008 was ‘Florida-07’, in which the highest seeding rate (4.4 cm apart) yielded more than the lowest seeding rate (5.8 cm apart).  For 2009, ‘Georgia Green’ had higher yields at the high seeding rate than at the middle (recommended) seeding rate of 5.1 cm apart.  ‘Georgia-06G’ had higher yields at both the low and high rates than at the recommended rate.  The only variety in 2009 that had lower yields at the low seeding rate than at either of the higher seeding rates was ‘Tifguard’.  Final plant stands did drop below the optimum stand of 13.1 plants m^-1 of row for several large seeded runner cultivars in both years, and stands were lower at the low seeding rate, but this did not translate to reductions in yield or grade, or any differences in white mold or TSWV.  This data suggests there is not a significant risk to peanut production by reducing seeding rate from the recommended rate of 5.1 cm apart to a lower rate of 5.8 cm apart in either twin or single rows.  However, twin row pattern did have better results than single rows.