The study was carried out at the Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS) in Harare. The DR&SS is in natural region IIa, it receives an average rainfall of 750-1000 mm per annum and an average temperature of 16^oC in winter and 26^oC in the summer season. DR&SS is located at an altitude of 1506 m above sea level, longitude of 31'^o03’E and 17048’S latitude. It is characterised by red loamy soils which some crusting tendencies when dry.

The trial was laid in a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates with slope as the blocking factor. The experiment had six treatments which were the three new short season groundnut varieties which are Chitala, Nsinjiro, JL11 and three check cultivars (Nyanda, Illanda and Tern). The trial was run for three growing seasons from 2014/15 to 2016/17. This was a rainfed experiment and no irrigation was done. However, rainfall was not evenly distributed throughout the growing seasons as it was characterised by moderate to severe mid-season droughts in all three seasons.

Land was disc ploughed using a tractor drawn disc plough with a disc harrow to establish fine tilth. Each plot measured 6 m × 2.25 m. A 0.50 m pathway was left between plots and 1.0 m between blocks. Planting was done at a seed rate of 100kg/ha with an inter-row spacing of 45 cm and in-row spacing of 7.5 cm. Compound D (N 7%: P₂O₅ 14%: K₂O 7%) was applied in rows at planting at a rate of 150 kg/ha. At flowering stage calcium sulphate (gypsum) was split applied, 100 kg/ha was applied at day 33 after sowing and another 100 kg/ha applied at day 47 after sowing.

Once off hoe weeding was done at day 15 after planting, this was to mimic the small holder farmers’ weed management regime. Usually the small holder farmers weed their fields once and sometimes no weeding at all due to labour constrains 6. Harvesting was manually done by pulling the groundnuts from the soil.

Days to physiological maturity was the period (days) from sowing to when the groundnuts were showing physiological maturity signs. Observation for maturity started when the plants stopped flowering and leaf shedding was pronounced. Briefly, five plants were selected randomly from the discard row and pulled out and pods inspected. When the pods had reached normal size with characteristic veins, the plant were considered to have reached physiological maturity. After determining pod size and colour, the pod was break open to examine the internal seed coat colour and seed colour. When the internal pod had turned to a darker colour and seed turned into the characteristic seed colour to the variety the crop was considered to have reached physiological maturity. The date was then recorded as the day to physiological maturity.

Since all the data were counts, log transformation was done before analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to determine performance of the new short seasoned against old varieties using Genstat 18^th edition. The LSD_0.05 was used to separate means where there were significant (P<0.05) differences.

There was no significant difference in the days to 50% emergence between the new and check seasoned varieties (Table 1). Generally, the varieties emerged on day 7 and 9 which tallies to 9, who reported that groundnut seed takes 8-10 days to emerge after sowing in red loamy soils. The uniform emergence could be as a result of the fine tilth which loosens the soil and allowed the seedling to exert less force to push the soil above 10. Similarly, 3 asserted that well prepared land allows good drainage which prevents water logging which prevents seed rotting in the soil, thus increasing the chances of seed emergence.

There was a significant difference (p˂0.05) between the new and check varieties on the days to 50% flowering (Table 1). The variations in days to flowering among the groundnut varieties could be attributed to the genotypic difference of the varieties 4. Nsinjiro, Chitala and JL11 may have been bred to flower earlier than the check cultivars Nyanda, Illanda and Tern. Time to flowering in groundnuts determines the maturity days of the cultivar 11. 12 reported that, early flowering varieties take fewer days to reach physiological maturity. Early maturity is a desirable characteristic in groundnuts because it enables the crop to escape end of season stress such as droughts and aflatoxin contamination.

Days to physiological maturity significantly (P<0.05) varied among the varieties (Table 1). JL11 and Tern took shortest (90.67 days) and longest (120 days) days to reach physiological maturity respectively (Table 1). Earlier study by 4 revealed that variations in days to physiological maturity could be as a result of genotypic differences. The genotypic differences among the short seasoned groundnut varieties could have resulted observed under tested agronomic practices. In general, the new varieties showed very early maturity characteristics as compared to the check varieties.

Pod yield significantly (p˂0.05) varied among the short season varieties. The check varieties (Nyanda, Illanda and Tern) had significantly (P<0.05) lower pod yield than the new varieties (Figure 1).

Pod yield differed significantly (p˂0.05) between the new and the check varieties (Figure 1). The outstanding variety was Chitala with pod yield of 4.635 t/ha. Tern was the least performing was Tern with a pod yield of 3.020 t/ha (Figure 1). Variations in yield could have been attributed to genotypic differences of the varieties 10. The high pod yield in Chitala could suggest that the variety has genotype traits for higher number of pods as compared to other varieties. High pod number is correlated with high pod yield as revealed by 13. High pod number could be also be as a result of the ability of the Chitala to turn many flowers into pegs which develop into pods. 14 reported that high yielding variety produce more pegs, thus high conversion of pegs into mature pods.