im starting to plan out my spring garden! im kindof bored with the typical summer vegetables that i seem to plant year after year. im trying to think out of the box...haha...anyone tried growing peanuts?
what about peanuts??
I've grown them twice but it was long ago and I probably could do a lot better now that I have the web to search out advice. They get pretty yellow flowers and peg/nail looking things grow down from the branches, reaching for the soil. When they connect, they make a peanut. You hill them up like potatoes so it's easier for the pegs to reach and the soil needs to be loose for easy penetration. They're a job to harvest. I loosened the dirt with a shovel and had to be careful so they remained attached when lifting the plant. You leave them lying in the sun to dry.
They're interesting and definitely different. Farmer Dill will probably come along with the expert advice.
Peanuts need a light soil, heat and a relatively long growing season. Anywhere from 90 -140 days depending on cultivar. They are somewhat similar to cowpeas in growth but need more space. A summer crop, that needs a soil temp around 70 degrees to germinate. Fertility needs are the same as for beans or peas, but demand looser soil, as after blooming and ferilization the pods must go into the soil to form. They are planted about 1 inch deep ( individual peanut) and at about 6 inch spacing. Rows need to be a minimum of three feet apart. In the southeast disease can be a problem especially the Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV). http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa258 They prefer to be planted on lists ( continuous ridge of soil 2-4 inches above normal soil level). I have no idea how they will do in California.
Spanish peanuts are the easiest to grow and are grown just about anywhere peanuts will grow. Valencias are not overly popular but next easiest to grow. Virginias are the big ones for fancy roasted peanuts, grown mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. Georgia grows mostly runner peanuts for processing, primarily peanut butter.
how big does each plant get??
About size of a large bush bean, However they take more space as the vine must sprawl on the ground to send down the pegs which form pods. Like beans, Spanish are smaller ranging up to the runner varieties which are like in size to a half runner.
do you know about how many peanuts form on each plant?
Last year the kids and I tried peanuts -- we bought the packaged ones at Walmart, the unroasted ones. We did have somewhat sandy soil and I happened to have raised beds. We experimented and shelled some to plant and left others in the shell. Both worked. They grew. We had peanuts. It was fun.
oh thats cool. so you can just use the unroasted ones fro the store!