Abstract
Data collected under field conditions from 12 medium maturing peanut cultivars were used to determine the average weekly changes in the dry weight of the roots, shoots, and pods. Root growth rate appeared to have diminished with the formation of pods. However, dry matter increased significantly in both the shoot and pods until the seeds began to mature. The incremental rate of the pod dry weight was linear with time during pod filling, but declined from 88 d after planting (DAP) when most pods were physiologically inactive due to maturation. Final pod yield was positively correlated to the rate of dry matter accumulation, duration of dry matter accumulation, and number of leaves, pegs, and pods/m2. Results suggest that significant improvements for higher pod yield can be achieved in medium maturing peanuts through selection for cultivars with high pegging and podding potentials.
Author notes
1Collaborative research between the Dept. of Crop Science, Univ. of Nigeria, Nsukka and the Inst. of Agric. Res., Ahmadu Bello Univ., Zaria. Financial support from the Nationally Co-ordinated Research Project on Peanut.