Research Update: Peanut Irrigation

At a Glance

Research Topic: Peanut Irrigation
PI: Wesley Porter and Cristiane Pilon
Team: Hannah Grubbs (MS student)
Main Objective: Establish effective variable irrigation thresholds for Georgia peanut production

Georgia is the number one peanut producing state in the U.S. planting 850,000 acres in 2024
Roughly half of those peanut acres are irrigated
There has been an increase in the adoption of soil moisture sensors used to schedule irrigation

Soil water tension is the force required for plants to take up water from the root zone and is related to how tightly the water is held by soil particles
Maintain or increase peanut yield by using variable soil water tension thresholds to schedule irrigation using soil moisture sensors
Maintain or increase profitability for producers by reducing irrigation inputs

Results in 2024 show no significant differences in yield between any irrigated treatments, but they did yield better than rainfed
Profitability for electric systems is not different between irrigated treatments, but are all more profitable than rainfed
In diesel systems there is no significant difference between any treatment irrigated or rainfed
Due to over 27 inches of rainfall during the growing season, it is likely full soil water tension effects were not observed in 2024

Treatment	0-40 DAP	41-110 DAP	111-Harvest
1	45 kPa	45 kPa	45 kPa
2	70 kPa	45 kPa	70 kPa
3	70 kPa	45 kPa	45 kPa
4	70 kPa	45 kPa	20 kPa
5	45 kPa	45 kPa	70 kPa
6	70 kPa	20 kPa	45 kPa
7	20 kPa	70 kPa	45 kPa
8	45 kPa	70 kPa	70 kPa
9	Rainfed

Irrigation threshold treatments illustrating the shift in treatments throughout the growing season.

DAP = Days after Planting. kPA = kilopascals, the unit to measure soil water tension.

This study will be repeated in 2025 using the same treatments. We are continuing work to analyze seed quality between treatments.

Liu, Y., Smith, A., Cambell, B., Fonsah, G., & Escalante, C. (2024). Budgets—Extension | Agricultural & Applied Economics. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Athens, GA.
https://agecon.uga.edu/extension/budgets.html
USDA/NASS 2024 State Agriculture Overview for Georgia. (2024). https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Ag_Overview/stateOverview.php?state=GEORGIA