Peanut Maturity Update – 10/9/25

by | Oct 10, 2025 | Field Crops, Peanut

a tractor inverting rows of peanuts

Washington County peanuts being dug earlier this week. Photo Credit: Mark Mauldin

 

The aGDD Tracker below shows the number of adjusted Growing Degree Days (aGDDs) accumulated by 72 fictional fields (8 locations x 9 planting dates) as of 9/25/25. Real temperature and rainfall data from each location is used as well as common soil types for the areas (Jay – sandy loam, Marianna – loamy sand, Marianna Irrigated – sand, Monticello – loamy sand, Live Oak and Bronson – sand). Medium maturity peanuts reach physiological maturity after the accumulation of approximately 2,500 Growing Degree Days and the aGDD Tracker quantifies their progress. Use the Tracker to approximate how your fields are progressing by following the field that are the most similar to yours in terms of planting date, location and irrigation status. If the aGDD value shown for your field is black (under 2,300), it’s probably not time to dig. If it’s yellow (between 2,300 and 2,500), you’re getting close; it’s time to pull samples and pod-blast to fine tune your harvest timing. Orange (2,500+) means it’s likely time to harvest, but pod-blasting is always the best way to know for sure.

For more precise tracking of your fields, go to PeanutFARM.org and set up your fields in the system. You will be able to enter field specific rainfall/irrigation data and soil type. Temperature data will come from the closest FAWN weather station. If you are interested in setting up your own peanut fields on PeanutFARM.org, don’t hesitate to contact me for assistance.

aGDD Tracker for the Florida Peanut Producing Region – 10/9/25 edition

The aGDD Tracker is compiled from data generated by PeanutFARM.org. The dark blue bars, in the cells behind the aGDD values, indicate progress towards 2500 aGDDs. The bar extends to the right as aGDDs are accumulated. The entire cell will be dark blue when a field has accumulated 2500 aGDDs. It is recommended that fields be sampled, and exact days-to-harvest be determined via pod-blasting once a field reaches 2300 aGDDs.

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Recent rains and warmer temperatures are very evident in this week’s edition of the aGDD Tracker. Non-irrigated fields have progressed significantly since the 9/25/25 edition. Over the past two weeks the Tracker is showing non-irrigated fields averaging about 14.5 aGDDs accumulated per calendar day; this is a dramatic improvement from the 11 aGDDs per calendar day the previous edition showed. Using this rate of accumulation to project maturity dates, non-irrigated fields are now running anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks behind schedule (based on the 140 DAP rule of thumb). Irrigated fields continue ahead of schedule**.

Caution: The Tracker is just a model; actual field conditions may vary considerably – pull samples and pod-blast to know for sure what’s happening in your fields. I included this cautionary statement this week because what I’ve seen pod-blasting recently doesn’t quite line-up with what the Tracker is saying. When you use the Tracker be sure to consider the soil types the model is based on and differences in rainfall between the weather station locations and your actual field locations. A more specific example which I encountered this week: pod-blast samples from non-irrigated fields close to the Marianna FAWN weather station, on sand (not loamy-sand, which the model is calibrated for) were much farther behind than the Tracker indicates. They were very close to what the Tacker shows for Montecillo and Live Oak. The sandy Marianna fields were more delayed from drought stress than the model predicted.

This has shaped up to be a very difficult year to optimize harvest timing in non-irrigated fields. Pod set has been very uneven throughout the growing season, and the severity of drought impact is highly variable field to field. If your vines are strong enough to allow you to wait, I would strongly encourage you to sample and pod-blast prior to digging; you may be quite surprised with what you find.

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** The aGDD values shown for the irrigated fields represent peanuts that have never experienced a single moment of drought stress and have had zero pest/disease pressure. The aGDD values are the absolute maximum physically possible within the parameters of the temperature data provided by the FAWN Stations – real life probably doesn’t work like that.

Mark Mauldin
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