Peanut Seed Prices and Planting Methods: 8 Steps to Grow High-Yield Peanuts
Peanuts are abundantly produced and widely eaten in China. As a result, the number of farmers growing peanuts is increasing year by year. So what are peanut seed prices and planting methods? How do you grow them for high yield? What are the specific steps?
1. Peanut seed prices
The price of raw seeds is about 8-10 yuan per jin, but prices vary considerably depending on seed quality, variety, place of origin, market, and so on. Peanuts are grown very widely in China. Usually one mu of land requires about twenty jin of peanut seeds, with one thousand hills per mu and two to three seeds per hill. The yield per mu is about 600 jin, and high-yield fields can approach 800 jin.
2. Peanut planting methods and steps
1. Deep plowing and land preparation
The most suitable soil conditions for peanut growth and development are good drainage, deep and fertile soil layers, soil that neither hardens nor crumbles when dry, neither sticks nor turns to mush when wet, and sandy loam or light loam with a moderate ratio of clay to sand particles. Peanuts are not tolerant of saline-alkali soil; they cannot germinate at a pH of 8. When acidity is too high, the availability of elements such as calcium, phosphorus, and molybdenum in the soil is poor, making them hard to absorb and use, and toxicity from high-valence iron and aluminum may also occur. Therefore, the most suitable soil pH for peanuts is 6.5-7.
Deep plowing and deep turning reduce the impact of continuous cropping on yield, increase soil permeability, promote soil microbial activity, and break down insoluble nutrients in the soil for crops to absorb and use. Combined with sand compaction and the application of organic fertilizer, this can effectively increase the thickness of the active soil layer and the soil organic matter content. Because peanuts are a deep-rooted crop, with their root mass distributed in the active soil layer, a thicker active soil layer means a larger root mass and a stronger ability to absorb nutrients and water, which greatly helps promote peanut growth and improve drought tolerance.
2. Ridging
Ridging for planting is a successful practice for increasing peanut yield, significantly raising yield by increasing the hundred-pod weight, hundred-kernel weight, and kernel outturn rate. It is generally done half a month before local sowing. The ridges are 8-15 cm high, the ridge width is adapted to local conditions and can be determined according to the terrain and the number of planting rows, and the furrows are 30-40 cm wide.
Ridging for planting has many advantages. First, it increases the light-receiving surface, raises soil temperature, and thickens the active soil layer, ensuring uniform and strong seedlings. If ridging increases the light-receiving surface by 6% compared with flat planting, the soil temperature at the seedling stage is 1.2 degrees C higher than in flat-planted land, emergence can be 2 days earlier, the emergence rate increases by 5 percentage points, and the root system is more developed than with flat planting. Second, it prevents fertilizer damage and makes it easier to clear the plants. Third, it makes the fruiting layer loose, which helps the pegs enter the soil and the pods develop. Fourth, it moves the fruiting layer higher than with flat planting, making harvest easier and also preventing waterlogging.
3. Applying enough base fertilizer
A crop is a flower, and it all depends on fertilizer to thrive. For fertilizing ridge-planted peanuts, 80% of the fertilizer should be applied during winter plowing or spring plowing, and 20% should be wrapped within the ridge when ridging, to avoid direct contact between seeds and fertilizer and prevent fertilizer damage. Although peanuts have well-developed roots and rhizobia for nitrogen fixation, and can still produce some harvest without fertilization, their demand for phosphorus and potassium fertilizer is higher than that of other crops.
4. Sunning pods and grading
Before sowing, fully sun the pods to increase physiological activity and enhance water absorption capacity and germination vigor. If peanut seeds are directly exposed to the sun, the seed coat very easily becomes brittle and cracks, leaving the seeds unprotected and prone to rotting. Generally, pods are sunned for 2-3 days before sowing. After sunning, although the start of emergence is only one day earlier than with unsunned pods, the peak emergence period is 5 days earlier, and the average yield increase is more than 8%.
After sunning, shell the pods. Try to select seeds with bright color, large and plump grains, and uniform size as first-grade seeds to sow together, so that emergence is uniform and large and small seedlings do not grow together, with large seedlings suppressing small ones and causing yield reduction. According to experience, selecting and sowing first-grade seeds increases yield by more than 20% compared with mixed seeds.
The suitable time for shelling pods is about 10 days before sowing. Experiments and practice have proven that the later the shelling, the stronger the seed vitality and the more uniform and robust the emergence.
5. Timely sowing and rational close planting
The sowing period must be appropriate. Sowing too early easily affects flower bud differentiation, and encountering low temperatures and rainy weather before emergence makes seed rot likely. Sowing too late cannot make full use of the growing period, affecting the number of effective flowers and pod development and lowering yield and quality. Pay attention to planting density. Generally, large peanuts are planted at about 8000 hills per mu, while small peanuts can be planted more densely, at about 10000 hills per mu, with 2 seeds per hill.
6. Key points of early-stage cultivation management
First, check for missing seedlings and replant. If missing seedlings are found 10-15 days after sowing, promptly pregerminate and replant. Alternatively, when sowing peanuts, sow some spare seedlings in another plot, and after the peanuts emerge and before the true leaves unfold, transplant seedlings with soil to fill gaps, taking care not to damage the roots.
Second, clear the seedlings. Clearing the seedlings means, after peanuts emerge, scraping away the surrounding soil so that the cotyledons are exposed above the ground. The benefits of doing this have already been discussed above, so they will not be repeated here.
Third, earth up. The purpose of earthing up is to shorten the distance between the pegs and the ground surface, so that the pegs enter the soil earlier and the pod-setting rate and full-pod rate increase. Note that this is generally done after flowering, 15-20 days later, after rain or on cloudy days before the rows close.
7. Key points of mid- and late-stage cultivation management
High peanut yield requires no excessive vegetative growth in the mid stage and no premature senescence in the late stage.
The pod-setting stage is the period of most vigorous peanut growth and also the peak period of fertilizer and water demand. Insufficient water and fertilizer will affect the plant's growth process and pod plumpness. However, good soil fertility combined with high temperature and frequent rain during the pegging stage can also cause excessive plant growth and premature row closure, resulting in a closed field, reduced leaf area, tall-hanging pegs with many pegs failing to set, and many pods failing to fill. Therefore, 30-45 days after initial flowering, spray regulators such as chlormequat or paclobutrazol to regulate the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth, increase the rate at which photosynthetic products are transported to the pods, and improve the pod-setting rate and full-pod rate. Note that dosage and spraying time must be strictly controlled. Generally, the dosage can be appropriately reduced in dry years, and spraying on sunny days at the end of full flowering gives better results.
After the pod-setting stage, the absorptive capacity of peanut roots weakens, and the main nutrients in stems and leaves cannot meet expenditure, so premature nutrient deficiency and senescence easily occur. Until harvest, the leaves at the base of stems and branches gradually fall, and each stem and branch has only 4-6 top leaves, which are the basis for maintaining whole-plant vigor and carrying out photosynthesis. In order to enhance leaf vigor and extend the functional period, foliar fertilizer should be sprayed starting from the late podding stage, once every 7-10 days, for a total of 2-3 sprays.
8. Harvest and storage
Peanuts are indeterminate-flowering plants, and the pods cannot mature at the same time. Therefore, when new peanuts are harvested, mature pods have a water content of about 50%, and immature pods about 60%, and they must be dried promptly. Generally, after 5—6 days of sunning, the pods rattle when shaken, and when the pod water content drops below 10% and the seed water content drops to 7%, they can be stored in a ventilated, dry place.
Finally, here is how to ensure high and stable yields when planting peanuts in continuous cropping land.
To achieve stable and abundant yields year after year when planting peanuts in continuous cropping land, in addition to normal scientific nutrient fertilization, two problems need to be solved: first, eliminating the harm of continuous cropping bacteria. When peanuts are planted in the same plot year after year, the more consecutive crops, the greater the harm of continuous cropping bacteria and the lower the yield. Second, promoting the growth of root nodules. Root nodules can fix nitrogen from the air for the nutritional needs of peanut growth. For crops such as peanuts and soybeans, root nodules can ensure 85% of the required nitrogen fertilizer supply. Therefore, planting peanuts does not require excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer. If too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, it can both inhibit the growth of root nodules and cause excessive growth of leaves and vines, affecting fruit growth. Wherever peanut leaves and vines grow excessively, the fruits are almost always fewer and shriveled, and the yield is low.