Planting peanuts?

I thought there ought to be some people here with experience growing peanuts. My wife and I want to try growing some this year, but I know almost nothing about their needs.

When to plant, what kind of soil, how much water, how long a season... Everything, I guess

Thanks!

Here's some advice from UGA that I posted on another thread. May is prime peanut planting season in Georgia, and October into November is harvest season -- which makes for a long season. I have heavy clay soil, but the peanuts seem to do well in the 8-12" of decent soil that I have on top of solid clay. I tried peanuts on a hugelkultur bed last year, but they didn't do too well. Between the squirrels grazing on the plants and the excessive rains in July and August, they were under a lot of pressure. I didn't get near the yield I got the previous year when they were planted on garden soil that just had some compost and wood chips tilled in.

Peanuts are pretty drought tolerant compared to other plants. If they are suffering from a dry spell, the plants look alright, but they won't be filling the pods and you will see that at harvest time in a reduced yield. Normal rainfall in Georgia is about an inch of rain a week, so if they get that, they should do well.

If you are thinking about companion planting with them, they make a good ground cover, so you can pair them with tall, spindly plants -- something like okra.

I'm going to try Schronce's Black and Tennessee Red Valencia this year. I'm in Maine so it's kind of an experiment, but it's worth a try I figure.

This is something I read recently, covers quite a bit; http://msucares.com/lawn/garden/vegetables/list/peanuts.html

I guess limed, sandy soil is what your average farmer would grow peanuts in.

Peanuts are like Maize in that the length of the peanut's growing season is dependent on the temperatures you have in a particular area.

Hey! Something my sand may be good for! Long season and does not sound like something you can start early and transplant. Do they need a particular innocculant, or can they work with one you would use with legumes generally?

The MSU article was interesting. I had no idea that peanuts spent a couple of weeks air drying, or that they lost so much water weight in the process.

Soon I will be carefully shelling raw peanuts.

I have a pound of Valencia I'll be putting in over the next couple of days. Peanuts will do well in the heat, humidity and sand.
If not sand, loose soil is needed. Peanuts have an interesting method of protecting the seeds after the flowers have pollinated. They peg. A shoot grows down from each flower to penetrate the soil. If the soil is too hard or firm, the peg can not penetrate deeply. The sun and bugs can do damage to the pods. You can get a good idea of how many peanuts you'll have by counting the pegs. A good Valencia can develop 10-20 pegs with 2-4 peanuts per pod, 50 peanuts per plant is good performance. 1 pound in, 50 pounds out. I'll be happy to get 20 pounds out.

Water. Everything needs water. From seed to peg, the plant needs water. By the time it has pegged, the plant can get by with less water as the roots will be fully developed

Lime. I have no idea how much, but everyone around here spread lime before they plant.