How Much Seed Is Needed Per Mu for Peanuts? A Full Guide to Sowing Time and Growing Techniques

The peanut, originally named groundnut, is a nut with abundant yield and wide consumption in our country, also known as “longevity fruit”, “mud bean”, etc., belonging to the order Rosales. So do you know how much peanut seed is needed per mu? When to plant? What are the techniques? According to peanut grower Liu Jianhua, one mu of land needs about 10-15 kg of peanut seed.

When are peanuts planted?

Because weather conditions differ from region to region, peanut cultivation techniques vary somewhat.

1. In the south, peanuts can be sown in two seasons a year.

(1) Spring sowing takes place around the third month of the lunar calendar; spring peanuts bear more pods than autumn peanuts, and the pods are plump.

(2) For autumn peanuts, the sowing period is best in early August at lower altitudes and late July at higher altitudes; if dry sloping land is used for planting, sowing should be appropriately advanced to reduce the impact of autumn drought.

2. In the cold northern regions and high-cold areas with short frost-free periods, multi-seeded varieties are mainly planted; in the northern peanut region, common varieties are mostly planted. In the northern large-peanut region and peanut-producing areas, the suitable sowing period is mostly from late April to early May.

3. Peanut is a warmth-loving crop, so the temperature must be suitable; the most suitable stable temperature for peanut sowing is around 12°C, while its most suitable temperature for flowering is 23-28°C, with a minimum temperature of 19°C.

What are the peanut growing techniques?

1. Peanuts are better suited to level land

Peanut is a cash crop that flowers above ground and, after forming pegs, drills into the soil to set pods. It is suitable for planting in loose sandy soil and oil-sand soil. The plot for planting peanuts should be deep-plowed, and together with plowing, 30-40 tons of high-quality farmyard manure per hectare should be applied, followed by 1-2 passes of compacting after plowing. Where conditions allow, water can be applied first, then farm manure and chemical fertilizer mixed and applied into the furrow, followed by ridging and compacting, in preparation for timely sowing. Note that peanuts like fresh ground and are not suitable for continuous cropping or back-to-back cropping. Better preceding crops are corn, millet and sorghum.

2. Sowing methods. Peanut sowing methods are divided by cultivation mode into open-field sowing and film-mulch sowing. By operation mode, they are divided into manual dibbling and mechanical sowing.

3. Sowing density. The principle of reasonable close planting should be mastered. Peanut planting density is determined by plant height, pod-setting range and leaf area size. The suitable planting density of peanuts depends on climate characteristics, soil fertility, selected varieties and cultivation conditions. Generally, a plant-to-row spacing of 5×8 cun is used, with double-seed planting, and the basic seedling number sown per mu is more than 23,000, with about 20,000 plants at harvest; for opening rows, peanut-specific row-opening ploughs or peanut hole-setting tools should be used as much as possible, with six rows planted per bed.

4. Sowing depth. Generally, peanut sowing is best at about 5 cm. The principles of “do not sow deep when dry, do not sow shallow when wet” and sowing shallow in clay soil and deep in sandy soil or plots with a high sand content should be mastered. In open-field cultivation, the deepest must not exceed 7 cm, and the shallowest must not be less than 3 cm.

5. Compacting after sowing. Compacting after sowing is a successful experience for drought-resistant peanut sowing to ensure a full stand. After compacting, it can not only reduce soil moisture evaporation, but also bring the seeds into close contact with the soil, promote the rise of moisture from the lower soil layer, prevent the seeds from drying out, and facilitate seed germination and seedling emergence.