The influence of the environment and the cultivar on field emergence of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) seedlings was investigated by determining the percentage of emerged seedlings for eight cultivars planted in replicated tests at five locations in North Carolina for a 3-year period.

Both years and locations influenced the percentage of emerged seedlings although neither source of variation was significant because of a large and significant location x year interaction. The percentage of seedlings that emerged was also influenced by the cultivar. ‘NC 17’ averaged only 63% emerged seedlings while both ‘Florigiant’ and ‘NC-Fla 14’ averaged over 80% emerged seedlings.

The year x cultivar and year x location x cultivar interactions were significant. The cultivars differed in stability over environments for the percentage of emerged seedlings when the data were analyzed by regression. Florigiant and NC-Fla 14 had greater stability over environments than the remaining six cultivars for the percentage of seedlings that emerged.

Broad-sense heritability for seedling emergence was estimated to be 0.76.

These results indicate that peanut breeders can improve seed quality by selecting for both a greater percentage of emerged seedlings and cultivar stability over years and locations.