Agronomic responses of newly bred short season peanut cultivars in a variable subtropical environment

Abstract

Peanut production in subtropical Australia has been steadily declining due to increased climatic variability and change, leading to significant supply-demand gaps. Shorter season cultivars are being released to minimise the impact of climate variability and change. The agronomic responses of these new cultivars, however, are not known. We evaluated recently bred short-season cultivars at 5 to 20 plants/m2 plant populations, 45 and 90 cm row spacings and with and without irrigation on a Ferrosol at Kingaroy during 2014-20. Pod yields were 2.6 to 7.8 t/ha. The pod yield response to planting density and row spacing was much smaller than soil water and cultivar differences, with ‘Taabinga’ being the best yielding cultivar. The results suggest that short season high yielding cultivars like ‘Taabinga’ can promote increased production of peanuts in rainfed production areas. Keywords Arachis hypogaea L.,