Southeast Farmers Can Grow Organic Peanuts, and Yield 3,000 Pounds or More

ATHENS, Georgia – With careful timing at planting and frequent mechanical cultivation during production, growing organic peanuts throughout the Southeast, although a challenge, is no longer impossible.

Six years of on-farm research and university experiment stations trials in Georgia and the Carolinas, funded by Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) grants, has shown that farmers can grow organic peanuts throughout areas of the Southeast, and yield a respectable 3,000 pounds per acre or more.

However, it takes some careful planning and intensive production practices to make it work, said Mark Boudreau, a public service assistant with the University of Georgia Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and one of the project leaders.

“Peanuts are practically synonymous with the Southeast. Over 80 percent of the peanut production comes from the region, but when it comes to organic, nearly all of the production is in Texas and New Mexico,” said Boudreau. “There is a huge demand for organic peanuts. There is no reason why the Southeast can’t get in the game.”

Boudreau said that growing organic peanuts in the Southeast poses two challenges: one is controlling insects, diseases and weeds during production; the other is the lack of infrastructure in the region to shell organic peanuts and sell on a large scale to processors.

Through Southern SARE Research & Education Grants, a team of researchers and farmers in Georgia and the Carolinas conducted on-farm trials and controlled experiments at university research stations to develop a system for organic peanut production, focusing on pest management and weed control. What they found was that insects could be controlled through irrigation, with thrips requiring foliar sprays of an organic insecticide, spinosad, when needed. Post-establishment diseases could be managed via resistant varieties and some organic sprays if necessary.

“That was the easy part,” said Boudreau. “The overwhelming limitation was weed control. When the crops failed, it was generally because of weeds.”

Boudreau said that one way to overcome some weed pressure is to get a good stand of organic peanuts quickly established long before weeds even show up.

“A farmer needs to know his farming system. He needs to know the land and the weather,” said Boudreau. “The saying goes that if you see a weed, then it’s already too late.”

Ultimately, the project investigators recommended intensive mechanical cultivation as the key to controlling weeds in organic peanut fields.

“Particularly one piece of equipment seems to do the trick: a flex tine cultivator,” said Boudreau. “Use it before the peanuts emerge and every few days afterward for about three weeks, or until the canopy closes.”

Boudreau said that the flex tine cultivator, when set at the right speed and right tine height, scratches the soil surface exposing weed seeds, and thereby drying them out.

The project, “Exploiting the Organic Peanut Market: Design of Production Systems for the Southeast” (LS05-169), wrapped up this year. Project investigators plan to develop an organic peanut production guide as a result of their findings.

For Southeast growers interested in producing organic peanuts, Boudreau recommends the following production tips:

• Install an irrigation system for maximum insect control and to ensure a competitive stand.
• Don’t plant in soils with heavy weed pressure.
• Choose varieties with disease resistance. Certified organic farmers must use untreated seed.
• Conduct intensive mechanical cultivation, preferably with a flex tine cultivator.
• Establish a good quality stand and replant gaps before weeds emerge.
• Where applicable, treat seed with organic seed treatments.
• Be prepared to do some spot hand weeding.
• Don’t overwhelm yourself with high acreage. For beginning farmers, a good starting point is three to five acres. Even seasoned growers have planted no more than twenty acres so far, said Boudreau.

With the how-to established, the next challenge for organic peanut producers is finding places in the Southeast to sell their crop, said Boudreau.

“The biggest road block to organic peanut production is the lack of certified organic shellers,” said Boudreau. “But it’s inevitable that there will be an organic peanut industry in the Southeast. All it’s going to take is one certified organic sheller to turn the tides.”

Other project participants include Clemson University Edisto Research and Education Center, USDA-ARS Coastal Plain Experiment Station, and North Carolina State University. To read more about the final report, log on to SARE’s national database.

Southern SARE Research & Education Grants further sustainable agriculture systems research efforts. Systems research, the core of Southern SARE program fundamentals, aims to understand how a complex system functions as a whole, often beginning with a conceptual model.

Research & Education Grants Calls for Proposals for the 2012 FY are currently open. Application deadline is June 1, 2011. Read more about Southern SARE’s Research & Education Grants. To submit a proposal, log on to R&E Calls for Proposals.

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Published by the Southern Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Southern SARE operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University, and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture to offer competitive grants to advance sustainable agriculture in America's Southern region.