‘Arnie’ – A New Peanut Variety Released by the University of Florida

by | Feb 2, 2024 | Field Crops, Peanut

A new runner-type peanut variety named ‘Arnie’ was released by the University of Florida-IFAS on January 26, 2024.  The ‘Arnie‘ peanut cultivar was developed at the University of Florida, North Florida Research and Education Center near Marianna, Florida from a cross made in 2014.  The ‘Arnie’ peanut cultivar is named after Arnold “Arnie” Forrester, who was a farmer in Jackson County until his tragic death on January 1, 2022 (Arnold Devin Forrester Obituary 2022 ).  Arnie Forrester was an outstanding farmer and always searching for new technology to improve his farming operation. He was also a strong collaborator with UF/IFAS as recalled in this article from February 2022 (Tribute to Arnie Forrester).  If ‘Arnie’ the peanut cultivar is half as good of a peanut variety as Arnie Forrester was a man, it will be truly outstanding.

The characteristics of ‘Arnie’ include high yield potential, high TSMK grade, and excellent tolerance to tomato spotted wilt virus.  ‘Arnie’ has normal oleic oil chemistry, making it the second release from the University of Florida-IFAS in recent years with this trait.  Some of the largest producers of peanut butter in the USA prefer the normal oleic trait and peanut butter represents the end use for over half of peanuts produced in the USA. On the other hand, high oleic peanuts are favored by the makers of peanut candies and whole nuts, because they have a longer shelf life in those food applications.  In twenty-three Florida tests, over five years and three locations, the pod yield of ‘Arnie’ was greater than that of Georgia-06G, the dominant peanut cultivar grown today.  The Total Sound Mature Kernels (TSMK) grade of ‘Arnie’ was slightly greater than Georgia-06G as well.  Seed supply of ‘Arnie’ will be limited in 2024, with about 90 acres of Foundation seed grown in 2023.

The tolerance of ‘Arnie’ to tomato spotted wilt virus is one of the variety’s most impressive features.  In tests conducted in Florida and Georgia, the spotted wilt disease ratings of ‘Arnie’ were significantly lower than Georgia-06G, and similar to Georgia-12Y, which has the best tolerance to spotted wilt among cultivars grown today.  ‘Arnie’ is medium in maturity requiring about 140 days until maturity, in Florida, under irrigation. It has a relatively small runner seed size of about 700 SMK per pound and produces about 38% medium seeds on an in-shell basis. Another unique feature of Arnie is that about 15% of its pods contain three seeds (Figure 1 below).

Figure 1. Example of pods of the peanut variety ‘Arnie’ with three seeds per pod on the same plant with pods containing two seeds. Credit: Barry Tillman, UF/IFAS

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