How to sow groundnuts

Seeds should be sown at a depth of five to six centimetres.

To ensure uniform sowing depth, germination and crop stand, it is suggested that a groove 5-6 cm in depth is made along the rows for planting and, once the seed has been planted at the right depth and spacing, the soil is pressed down to ensure good contact with the seeds, enabling them to extract moisture more effectively.

It is important to sow groundnut seeds in rows and at the right spacing as this helps to reduce the incidence of rosette disease, ensures a more uniform pod maturity, better quality seed and maximizes yield.

Planting groundnut plants closer together results in individual plants setting fewer pods, but over a short period of time.

Overall, this will ensure that the pods will be of a similar age and stage of development and, therefore, make it easier to decide when to harvest. Wider spacing will produce less yield per hectare.

Weeding

Groundnuts cannot compete effectively with weeds, particularly three to six weeks after sowing, therefore, early removal of weeds is important.

Generally, two to three weedings are recommended, the first before flowering and at least one other during pegging. If early weeding is done well, and crop spacing recommendations followed, then the weeds that come up later are smothered with the vigorous growth of the crop.

When weeding, it is important to avoid covering the bottom of the plants with earth (including earthing up) as this can increase diseases (such as white mould), reduce flowering and pod development and, therefore, reduce pod yield.

Once flowering and pegging begins, it is advisable to weed by hand pulling, rather than by using a hoe, as this is less likely to disturb any developing pods.

Main diseases

Groundnut rosette disease is caused by viruses that are transmitted by aphids. It can occur at high levels and can often produce 100% loss in yield.

There are two forms of symptoms seen in the crops: ‘chlorotic' (yellow and stunted) and ‘green' (green and stunted). Late planted crops and wide spacing can increase the incidence of rosette disease so these should be avoided. Rosette resistant varieties of groundnut are available (e.g. Serenut 2, Igola 1 and these eliminate the need for spraying insecticides to control the aphids.

If a high-yielding non-rosette resistant variety is grown (like Serenut 1) then insecticides will be needed.

Systemic insecticides, such as dimethoate (Rogor EC40®) can be sprayed at a dosage of 50ml in 20l of water, 14 days after crop emergence and then at 10-day intervals for a total of four sprays. Harvesting is made when leaves start drying, after 100 to 120 days. If the soils are soft, pull out the plant and then leave them to dry partially in the garden for at least a day. Then carry home and continue drying.

Compiled by Joshua Kato (the editor Harvest Money) and Vegetable Oil Development Programme (VODP)