Abstract:

Field experiments were conducted to determine the most suitable sowing date for high oleic acid peanut in Henan Province. The study aimed to examine the effects of different sowing dates on the growth, development, and yield of high oleic acid peanut. The high oleic peanut variety ‘Yuhua 65’ was used as experimental material. The sowing experiments were conducted at the Zhengzhou Agricultural Meteorological Experimental Station from 2020 to 2021 and at the Shangqiu Agricultural Meteorological Observation Station in 2022. During the experiment, the main growth stages such as sowing, emergence, flowering, injection, full fruit, and maturity were observed and recorded. After harvest, the pod yield and its constituent factors were measured, and the main factors affecting the yield were determined by path analysis. Based on the accumulated temperature during the entire growth period of peanut determined by the field experiment, combined with the daily air temperature data from 1991 to 2020 of the Zhengzhou and Shangqiu meteorological observation stations, the suitable sowing dates of spring and summer peanuts were calculated respectively. The study revealed that the growth periods of plants were shortened when the sowing date was delayed. For every 10-day delay in sowing, the days of emergence, flowering and the whole growth period were shortened by 1-2 days, 3-4 days and 3-5 days, respectively. The effective accumulated temperature of ≥10℃ during the whole growth period was approximately 2100 ℃·d for spring sowing conditions and about 1900 ℃ for summer sowing. The average effective accumulated temperature of ≥10℃ for the entire growth stage of peanut decreased by about 80℃ for every 10-day delay of sowing date. The yield of sowing in mid-to-late May was higher, followed by mid-April, and the yield of sowing in June decreased with the delay of sowing date. The path analysis showed that the pod weight per plant was the primary factor affecting pod yield, followed by the kernel rate. Pod number per plant and 100 kernel weight had no significant response to sowing date. Under an 80% guarantee rate, the spring sowing date for ‘Yuhua 65’ should not be earlier than April 27, and the summer sowing date should be before June 6. The research results can provide theoretical basis and technical guidance for high-oleic acid peanut cultivation in Henan Province.

Key words: peanut, high oleic acid, sowing date, growth, temperature, yield, quality, path analysis, Henan Province