Seed and sowing in Groundnut

Kiran yadav

GBPUAT, Pantnagar

Selection and Treatment of Seed

Quality of seeds is of utmost importance for establishing the optimum plant stand. Pods for seed purposes should be stored unshelled in a cool, dry and ventilated place. For seed purposes, pods should be shelled by hand one week before sowing. Hand shelling ensures little damage to seeds. Pods shelled long before sowing time are liable to suffer from loss of viability and storage damages. Discard very small, shriveled and diseased kernels. Only bold seeds should be used for sowing. Treat the selected kernels with 5g of Thiram or Captan or Ceresan per gram of kernels so as to check various seed and soil borne diseases. Seed should be inoculated with proper strain of Rhizobium culture particularly in those places where groundnut is to be grown for the first time.

Time of Sowing

Sow the rainfed crop with the advent of monsoon in the last week of June or in the first week of July. Complete the sowing as early as possible as delayed sowing causes progressive reduction in the yield. Where irrigation facilities are available, sow groundnut around 20^th June or 10-12 days before the onset of monsoon with a pre-sowing irrigation. This helps in best utilization of monsoon by the crop because all the germination will take place before rains start which ultimately result in ahigher yield. It will also help in getting the field vacated in time for the sowing of Rabi crops.

In southern part of the country where groundnut is sown in Rabi Season also, it should be sown in the month of November and December.

Spacing, seed Rate and Method of Sowing

In bunch types, the row to row distance is kept 30-40 cm and in spreading type 45-60 cm. for this, 80-100 kg of seeds per hectare would be enough for bunch types and 60-80 kg for spreading types. Plant to plant distance would be 15 and 20 centimeters for bunch and spreading types respectively.

Sowing should be done about 5 centimeters deep behind the plough or with the help of dibbler or seed planter. On a large scale, seed planter can be used.