In new land peanut production it is critical to add liquid inoculants to insure adequate nitrogen in the soil for optimum peanut production. When to use nitrogen-fixing inoculants and what type are key management decisions for peanut producers.

The end of the peanut allotment program in the 2002 farm bill created dramatic shifts in where peanuts are grown in the United States. In the upper South, the end of the tobacco program, created more new opportunities for peanuts on land that traditionally produced tobacco.


Whether inoculants pay on land in which peanuts have been in a two- or three-year rotation with corn or cotton depends on the yield potential of the land, according to Jay Chapin, South Carolina peanut specialist.







Whether using inoculants on rotated land is cost efficient is highly dependent on the land. On land capable of producing high yields, 300 to 400 pounds per acre increases every third or fourth year, may be economically sound — it depends a lot on the operation, Chapin notes.

The Clemson scientist reminds peanut producers that inoculants are living organisms and providing an optimum environment for the bacteria to live and do their work is critical to the success of the product.



On peanut land deficient of nitrogen-fixing microbes but inoculated with these organisms, the peanut plant skips these multiple steps, absorbs available nitrogen molecules and seedling emerge. Similar steps are skipped in vegetative growth and fruiting on land with adequate nitrogen fixation.

Sidney Fox of Nitragin Incorporated says additional benefits of using an inoculant come at harvest. “Hull scrape tests in Georgia and Texas showed that peanuts treated with Optimize Lift matured several days earlier than untreated peanuts. This means that peanuts can be dug earlier, providing growers a good harvest management tool, especially if they grow multiple crops with similar harvest windows.”