Wes Porter, University of Georgia Extension precision agriculture and irrigation specialist, looks at the peanut crop from an irrigation scheduling trial.
Finding That ‘Just Right’ Amount Peanuts’ water requirement changes as the crop grows. An irrigation scheduling method helps producers stay on top of the crop’s needs. By Amanda Huber
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n the well-known fairy tale about three bears who are away from their home, a little girl named Goldilocks wanders in and searches for the porridge, chair and, finally, the bed that is “just right” to suit her tastes. In irrigating peanuts, there is an amount that is “just right” for the crop as it grows. Wes Porter, University of Georgia associate professor and Extension precision agriculture and irrigation specialist, strongly encourages producers to implement some type of irrigation scheduling tool to make sure the crop gets the water it needs, that “just right” amount, at the critical time, which is prior to seeing stress. “Irrigation management is critical to high-yielding peanuts across the board,” Porter says. “In our trials, we’ve seen mismanagement of irrigation, both on the lower and the upper end, that has the ability to significantly reduce yields.
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THE PEANUT GROWER • JUNE 2022
“We can overwater peanuts, and if we have a wet year like we have had the past couple of years, you need to be mindful of using one of the irrigation-management tools to make sure we don’t overapply irrigation to the crop.” Too Much, Too Little Affects Yields Whether it is the most basic, the UGA checkbook method, or one using soil moisture sensors or one of the online scheduling tools that are free, Porter says growers should be mindful of utilizing one of these tools to manage irrigation and in-season climate variability. Drought in the Southwest is ongoing, but the Southeast fell into a dry pattern in mid-May as well. Pam Knox, UGA senior public service associate and director of the UGA weather network, says many parts of the Southeast PEANUTGROWER.COM
