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growing peanuts...might have made a mistake...now some success!

Posts: 9751

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 month ago

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I haven't grown them before but got two black peanut seeds from 'going to seed' and our son sent some seed valencias also.
I lost several early and decided to grow two plants in large pots.
What I read said at least 20" ones and these were just a bit larger.

So, also what I read said to hill them like potatoes when they start to bloom so the 'pegs' can enter some soil in order to make peanuts.

So far so good.
The plants got huge and looked very healthy so I just carried on watering and adding some soil to the pot.

Now I see all of those pegs outside the pot with no soil to enter.
The branches are too stiff to bend around so they could peg in the pot.
I see them all as failed peanuts that I'll miss out on.

The two plants that survived in the garden are a fraction of this size...just now blooming and no sign of pegging.

any peanut farmers out there or anyone with advice?

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Nancy Reading

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posted 1 month ago

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Could you wrap something round the pot and fill with compost to make the pot taller? The stems would have to bend a bit, but not back down to the ground.

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 month ago

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thanks Nancy!
I could do that I think...we have a lot of 1/4" rabbit wire? and maybe line it with paper?

For now I'm trying these containers in my photos propped up on pots.
I can see where some of the pegs are dried up on the tip so maybe not viable anyway.

I don't have much available loose soil...used the last of my potting mix here but now wondering if some coarse decomposed sawdust might work as well?

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

M Ljin

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posted 1 month ago

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The wild ground beans send their flower shoots back into the ground. Is there a chance they would do that?

Edit: oh, I see—too high off the ground.

Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 month ago

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M Ljin wrote:The wild ground beans send their flower shoots back into the ground. Is there a chance they would do that?

that's what these want to do but my tubs were not large enough to accommodate the long stems with additional 'pegs'.

If they were in a field where all of the stems could lay flat on the ground and peg, then get hilled up it would be fine.

I didn't expect them to be so large and that they would want to produce peanuts that far out the branches.

next year I'll be better prepared!

(and now I'll have to check out the 'wild ground beans' you mentioned

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Vickey McDonald

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posted 1 month ago

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This is good to know, I'm in South Central Alaska and would very much like to grow peanuts. I grew up in the South and one thing I really miss is a good boiled peanut.

M Ljin

gardener

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posted 1 month ago

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Sorry for my fogginess…

I noticed today with extreme astonishment that my volunteer potato in a pot is doing almost the same thing. Almost. The plant is sending up extremely long, purple stolons… up and out of the pot!

I believe this is the weird TPS-grown potato I have called Baroque. They are an interesting variety…

Nina Surya

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posted 1 month ago

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How about digging a hole, the size of the pot where the peanut plant is in, and dropping the plant, pot and all (or remove pot) into the hole?
Then the branches can touch ground around the plant.

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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Nina Surya wrote:How about digging a hole, the size of the pot where the peanut plant is in, and dropping the plant, pot and all (or remove pot) into the hole?
Then the branches can touch ground around the plant.

Nina, that's a great idea!
The pot is heavy and large so a hole the equivalent is beyond me right now but that idea sounds like it would solve the problem.

thanks!

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Nina Surya

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Location: in the Middle Earth of France (18), zone 8a-8b

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posted 1 month ago

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Judith Browning wrote:

Nina Surya wrote:

Nina, that's a great idea!
The pot is heavy and large so a hole the equivalent is beyond me right now but that idea sounds like it would solve the problem.

thanks!

Judith, I can relate, I'm inching around with lumbago at the moment. But maybe there's someone you can ask for help?
Good luck and best wishes!

* Follow your curiosity , Do what you Love *
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Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

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Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 1 month ago

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Nina Surya wrote:How about digging a hole, the size of the pot where the peanut plant is in, and dropping the plant, pot and all (or remove pot) into the hole?
Then the branches can touch ground around the plant.

And it would be much more stable - less likely to fall over. Good idea!

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Judith Browning

Posts: 9751

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 month ago

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Nina Surya wrote:
Judith, I can relate, I'm inching around with lumbago at the moment. But maybe there's someone you can ask for help?
Good luck and best wishes!

thanks Nina!
I'm afraid the 'peanut dilemma' is not high on the list right now although we do have options for help...it's just that we try to limit asking sons and grandsons unless it's more of a priority...fortunately, they are there for us when we do need them 💜

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 9751

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 12 hours ago

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I decided to lift the peanut plants today because we are due for a couple days of rain.

The black, GTS ones seemed the most mature when I checked and sure enough there were a few long sprouts where the older shells popped open and the nuts began to grow....I think if I get them dry from now on they'll be ok. They even made nuts in my 'extensions'.
Joseph, I'll be sending some along with other seeds this year if they dry out ok. They were not grown without a bit of babying though😊

The other, fatter nuts are a red valencia (I thought?). The skin appears white and they might not be as mature...and seem large for a valencia?

Looking forward to planting some of both in a garden bed rather than a pot next year.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11276

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 11 hours ago

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Harvest looks good!

Judith Browning wrote:Looking forward to planting some of both in a bed next year.

I think that if they weren't good edibles they could be a real nuisance in the right environment - a candidate for Paul's backyard food pump perhaps?

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Judith Browning

Posts: 9751

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

2921

posted 10 hours ago

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Nancy, they are a nuisance I would love to have!

They did well in my pots with loose sandy soil but the two in the garden where there is more clay and the ground dries out more, the plants are way behind, a quarter the size of these and no noticable pegging.

Peanuts won't tolerate freezes nor a lot of rain at harvest.

Next year I'll plant earlier so that I'm lifting them while the soil is drier and there's no chance of rain or frost.

I read I should shake the soil off now and leave them on the plant in a dry airy place to cure for a couple weeks, then pick them off and dry some more I believe.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

James Bradford

pollinator

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Location: Salado, Texas

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posted 9 hours ago

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I would love to trade some fig cuttings for some of your harvest ...just a few pods for me to plant in Jarrell or Houston.

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Judith Browning

Posts: 9751

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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James Bradford wrote:I would love to trade some fig cuttings for some of your harvest ...just a few pods for me to plant in Jarrell or Houston.

Once they've cured out successfully I'd be happy to do that after I've returned some seed to GTS.

I received one pod with two black peanuts from Going to Seed and this is a nice increase from that one seed...If someone had nice sandy loam where all of the branches could pin easily as these tried to I expect the harvest would be triple?

What should be red Valencia's were from a pkt of seeds our son sent me.

I do have three varieties of figs (texas pink dawn, brown turkey, celeste?) and only get a harvest when I cover the trees over the winter and I have not done that recently. the pink dawn is ripening a few late ones though this year.

No trade required...if all goes well I'll try to send some.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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