Spatial plant arrangements related to growing and yield of peanut in two sowing dates at the Reconcavo Baiano

by Gonçalves, Joaquim Alves

The objective of this work was to evaluate, through growth analysis andyield, the vegetative and the productive performance of peanut, cropped under differentplant spacings and densities, at two sowing dates, beging in the rain station (march-june)and final (july-octuber) in the agroecological conditions of the Recôncavo region, State ofBahia, Brazil. The experiment was carried out at the Experimental Station of the Collegeof Agronomy of the Federal University of Bahia, following a randomized complete blockdesign, with the following factorial arrangement: 3 x 3 + 1 (three plant densities: 5,10,and 15 plants m-1 of row x three spacings between rows of: 0.50 m, 0.65 m, and 0.80 m,and a control treatment with plant spacing of approximately 0.25 m x 0.30 m). Thetreatments were replicated four times. Each plot comprised 6 plant rows with 5 m longand width variable according to the plant population. Sampling for growth analysis wasmade over the season, starting at 20 days after plant emergence with samples taken at15 days. In each sampling, 5 plants per plot were taken. The following agronomiccharacteristics were studied: final plant height, number of final branches and leafnumber. For this, ten plants per plot were sampled and the volume of fresh pods andgrain yield were determined based on the final plant population in each plot. The resultsobtained allowed to conclude that: a) at the second sowing date, the arrangement of 5plants m-1 x 0.80 m between rows resulted in the highest dry matter conversion, with thehighest yield of pod dry matter per plant, suggesting the occurrence of highphotosynthetic efficiency; b) the highest volume of fresh pods (15,700 L ha-1) and thehighest weight of fresh pods (3,249 kg ha-1) were obtained with the arrangements of 5plants m-1 x 0.80 m between rows and with 5 plants m-1 x 0.50 m between rows,respectively, which gives farmers two options in terms of spatial arrangements; and c)the introduction of new planting arrangements in the Recôncavo region, as suggested bythis work, is highly recommended since the conventional planting system currently inuse (hole spacings of 0,25 m x 0,30 m), has shown to provide lower yields.