Fertilization and nutrient management trials in peanut

The objective of the fertilization and nutrient management research is to evaluate peanut response to fertilization and determine the most cost-effective way to manage nutrients in a peanut cropping system. For 2016, we will continue our second year of research trials on calcium, manganese, boron, and nickel, as well as initiate a trial with copper. Calcium is essential for proper seed development directly affecting yield, grade, and seed quality. Various sources of calcium will be evaluated alone or as supplemental treatments. Manganese deficiency is thought to occur quite often but may be mis-diagnosed as herbicide injury, insect damage or other nutritional problems such as low pH. Later in the growing season, as peanuts 'drain' some nutrients from the leaves to the developing nuts the foliage will also often tum yellow and be misdiagnosed as manganese deficiency. Copper is typically applied as part of a fungicide, but fungicides change over time. When pH is high, copper is often limiting for plants; however, there are no clear critical values for copper in peanut. Nickel is thought to be required by some plants, such as pecan, and some growers in Georgia have tried it on peanut. No replicated field data, however, has been conducted with nickel on peanut to evaluate the need or response. Evaluating the true need for manganese, copper, or nickel fertilization could potentially save peanut growers considerable input costs. Boron deficiency is known to cause hollow heart and internal damage to peanut which can be an issue for snack peanuts. This problem does not usually show up until the peanuts are roasted. While yield responses to boron fertilization are fairly rare, the potential impact of internal damage to the end user, the peanut snack industry, is needed.