Anyone Growing Peanuts ?

I would like to grow a few peanuts. Organic homemade peanut butter is yummy. I remember friends of my dads' growing them when I was a kid. But Dad's gone now , and I was too young to ask questions about it at the time. I just remember eating them.

Anyone here have any experience growing a few peanuts ? I need a few helpful pointers if anyone has.

(Sorry if this is the wrong place to post. Didn't know if I should post it in edible fruits & nuts, or here with the legumes)

Several of us grow peanuts. Not difficult. The Spanish type is the easiest to grow, runner types are usually used for peanut butter and Virginia types for roasting. http://commodities.caes.uga.edu/fieldcrops/Peanuts/descriptions.html http://www.edinformatics.com/culinaryarts/food_encyclopedia/peanuts.htm They like loose soils but are otherwise grow in similar conditions to beans, but with a long season. I use 10 -12 inch spacing.

Thanks Farmerdill for those links. Lots of good and valuable info there.

Since you grow peanuts, what are your favorite varieties ? Can you point me in the right direction to obtain seeds ? Thanks so much for your help.

I f you happen to close to the peanut growing region of Oklahoma, feed and seed stores in rural areas carry them. They do here but mostly Georgia Green and a Spanish type. At the moment I am growing Tennesee Red, mostly for nostalgia. Some seed retailers still sell a generic Spanish type and Virginia Jumbo. https://www.rhshumway.com/shumsite/shumsitebrowse.aspx?category=3382 I will do a small planting of Georgia Green

Hi Peggie! I'm growing peanuts for the first time this year, and I'm really looking forward to it. They're not a very common crop around here. ; )

Farmerdill: how do they do if they're started indoors and transplanted outside? I bought "Tennessee Red Valencia", which are supposed to be better for shorter seasons, but I thought it might help if I could give them a head start. What do you think?

Rhonda

Never tried it, Might work for a few plants. Essentially they behave like beans, but have a very long season. Tennessee Red takes longer than most Spanish types but less than Virginia or runner types. Grows well in zone 7, but not sure how well it will do in zone 6 or above. Yield per plant is about the same as a dry bush bean.

Thanks, Farmerdill. I will try planting a few around the beginning of May for transplant, and direct sow a few others at the beginning of June.

If we get a growing season like last year's, it'll be November before we get a hard frost, which would work out just fine! : )

Rhonda

Rhonda...a couple yrs ago I started some peanuts in cell packs and set them out. (They were some heirlooms from Melody and I was babying some.) The handled transplanting very well. I also sowed some direct and it seemed to me that both plantings came to fruition at the same time, so I didn't really push production w/the transplants but at least I knew I had some to baby along in the early stages.

Here are the young transplants (short row where the arrow is):

And here they are a few months later, hilled up:

Thanks, Shoe. ☺

I'll try both ways and hope that the season will be long enough to get any of them to mature.

Rhonda

Shoe, were those the peanuts she posted at http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/394774/ ? There are some good growing tips there. I gave mine to Dr. Bradshaw at Clemson and they were the first thing the chipminks went for. He still has a few, so hasn't given up on them. Will you be growing them again? (edited because I didn't finish reading the link I just posted)

This message was edited Apr 12, 2006 8:41 AM

Yep, those are the same peanuts. And this year I'll grow some in the garden that is north of town...the soil out there is must more looser/sandier than the soil here on the farm.

Shoe

Good. They'll be much happier if we get all that rain again.

So, Shoe... how much yield from those few plants?

I never weighed them...nor counted per plant. Mainly cus I couldn't give a good idea. The clay-ey soil seemed to inhibit not only a good harvest but also a full "picking" (due to the soil being so wet that late in the year).

This year I'll keep better notes/measurements when I grow them again in a more friable soil.

i've grown peanuts off and on, (more off than on i'm fraid) for at least 35 yrs. I like spanish kind better, and i like the ones i grow better than ones i buy, better flavour, the soft rock i use probably accounts for that. i prefer them raw, the sweet flavour of a good nut kind of gets hidden by the strong rosted flavour.

If I plant some, do I plant them in the shell ? I'm thinking the only ones I'm going to find are going to be at the health-food stores in Tulsa, and they probably will be pre-shelled. Does it make a difference ? Also, should I innoculate them like peas ?

You shell them out and plant like beans, but with longer spacing like 10 -12 inches . If you go the grocery store/health food store route, make sure that you get raw peanuts.