Abstract
In-shell peanut sales provide a consistent market for large-seeded virginia-type peanuts. In this market, maintenance of a high quality product, which includes fresh roasted peanut flavor, is a recurring challenge. A maturity-seed size-quality relationship has been established for shelled peanuts. To determine if this relationship is true for in-shell peanuts, the relationships of maturity, pod size, and seed size were investigated. In two crop years (1992 and 1993) and on four to five harvest dates, virginia-type peanuts (cv. NC 9) were harvested at Lewiston, NC and sorted into hull scrape maturity classes: black, brown, orange B, orange A, and yellow. After pods were dried, they were screened to obtain the pod size distribution. Sized pods were hand-shelled, and the seed were screened to obtain the seed size distribution from each pod size from each maturity class. Hull scrape pod maturity profiles revealed a decrease of ca. 14% in yelloworange A and an increase of ca. 14% in brownblack over the 4- to 7-d harvest period. Overall, pod size distribution did not change over time although slight differences were noted between years. Pod size distributions within individual maturity classes were more variable. The data indicated that the Jumbo in-shell grade contained higher percentages of brown and black maturity classes than the fancy grade. Fancy grades contained 26-49% immature pods (yellow and orange A maturity classes).
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Keywords: maturity, seed size distribution, pod size distribution, quality
How to Cite:
McNeill, K. & Sanders, T., (1996) “Pod and Seed Size Relation to Maturity and In-Shell Quality Potential in Virginia-Type Peanuts¹”, Peanut Science 23(2), p.133-137. doi: https://doi.org/10.3146/i0095-3679-23-2-13