Did You Know The Peanut Is Not A Nut

Did you know the peanut is not a nut, it is actually a vegetable belonging to the legume family, which includes peas and beans. These tropical natives of South America require about 120 days to mature, but fortunately the peanut plant can withstand light spring and fall frosts. Jumbo Virginia is a productive variety for home gardens. Although the peanut plant is generally considered a Southern crop, Northern gardeners can also grow them successfully if they choose early cultivars such as Early Spanish and start plants indoors.

Peanuts need full sun. If you have heavy soil, ensure good drainage by working in enough organic matter to make it loose and friable. Peanut seeds come in their shells and can be planted hulled or unhulled. If you do shell them, don’t remove the thin, pinkish brown seed coverings, or the seed won’t germinate. Northern growers should start a peanut plant indoors in a large peat pot a month before the last frost. Sow seeds one inch deep, place in the sunniest spot possible, and water weekly. Transplant peanut plant seedlings to the garden when the soil warms to between 60 and 70 degrees. Space transplants 10 inches apart, being careful not to damage or bury the crown. In the South, plant outdoors around the date of the last expected frost. Space seeds two inches deep and five inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart. Firm the soil and water well. Thin plants to 10 inches apart.

Growing Peanut Plants

When a peanut plant is about a foot tall, hill the earth around the base of the peanut plant. Long, pointed pegs (also called peduncles) grow from faded flowers and then push 1 to 3 inches down into the soil beside the plant. A peanut will form on the end of each peg. Lay down a light mulch, such as straw or grass clippings, to prevent the soil surface from crusting so that the pegs will have no difficulty penetrating the soil. One inch of water a week is plenty a peanut plant. Being legumes, peanuts supply their own nitrogen, so avoid nitrogen-rich fertilizers, which encourage foliage rather than fruits. Well-prepared soil will provide all the nutrients the plants need.

Harvesting A Crop Of Peanuts

The crop is ready to harvest when leaves turn yellow and the peanuts’ inner shells have gold-marked veins, which you can check periodically by pulling out a few nuts from the soil and shelling them. If you wait too long, the pegs will become brittle, and the pods will break off in the ground, making harvesting more difficult. Pull or dig the plants and roots when the soil is moist. Shake off the excess soil, and let plants dry in an airy place until the leaves become crumbly; then remove the pods. Unshelled peanuts, stored in airtight containers, can keep for up to a year.

The popular Tennessee Red and Georgia Red varieties are Valencias, and the most commonly grown commercial variety, Valencia, is a descendant of Tennessee Red. As the fastest maturing peanut plants, Valencias are usually ready to dig 95 to 100 days after planting. Valencias have three to six small, red-skinned seeds packed into each pod. Famous for their sweet flavor and well filled pods, I think these are the best peanuts to eat raw. When roasted, Valencias come very close to the delicate crispness of Spanish peanuts.

The perfect soil for peanuts is sandy, loose and well-drained, with at least 18 inches of topsoil over subsoil that's neither rock nor hard pan. Peanuts will grow in clay loam, but small clay particles stick to the textured surfaces of mature peanut pods, leaving mottles that mar the beauty of the shells. The peanuts inside are just fine: You might not be successful selling peanuts grown in clay, but you shouldn't have any problem eating them.

Think carefully about where you plant peanuts in your garden, because they are sensitive to rotations. Plant peanuts after corn, wheat or another small grain, but never after potatoes or beans, which host several diseases that can infect peanuts. In an intensely managed, year-round vegetable garden, plant peanuts after winter greens such as turnips or kale. Peanuts fix most of their own nitrogen they don't need much fertilizer, but they do need abundant calcium along with boron, zinc and other minor nutrients. These are easily supplied by working a couple of inches of compost or rotted manure into the soil prior to planting. For added calcium, amend the soil with gypsum, a rock powder, at the rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. In extremely acidic soils some lime may be needed as well. Peanuts prefer a slightly acidic soil, between 5.8 pH and 6.5 pH. As with peas and other nitrogen-fixing legumes, peanuts often get off to a stronger start if you give them a tease of nitrogen soon after planting. However, because peanuts are susceptible to fertilizer burn, use nothing stronger than diluted fish emulsion. A single drench, applied soon after the seedlings crack through the soil's surface, is usually adequate.

Sowing & Growing Peanuts

Peanut plants grow 12 to 18 inches tall and up to 3 feet across, so its best to space row centers at least 36 inches apart. Always wait until after the soil has warmed to plant peanut seeds. Three weeks after the last frost and after soil temperature rises above 60 degrees is good peanut planting time. Plant seeds just shy of 2 inches deep, 4 to 6 inches apart. Soaking seeds overnight in water just before planting promotes fast, uniform germination.
Peanut seedlings will emerge within a week after planting, then they will grow slowly for about a month. Be patient, because secret wonders are taking place underground. For example, when you see four leaves above the soil line, there is probably already a 12-inch-long taproot beneath the plant, accompanied by lateral roots .stretching out in all directions. It's fine to mulch between peanut rows and to hoe weeds, but hand-pull weeds that appear close to the plants crowns. Always hoe level rather than hilling soil up around the plants, which peanuts don't like at all. Once pegging has begun (see Pegging Peanuts: A Geocarpic Wonder), stop weeding if it moans disturbing the soil under the plants' branches. Peanuts have no problem with heat, though even well-watered plants will wilt in the middle of a hot day. They do need regular watering, which is best supplied by deeply soaking the plants once or twice a week. The critical period for watering is 50 to 100 days after planting when the pods are growing near the soil's surface. As the plants near maturity, let the soil dry out. Very wet soil encourages mature peanuts to sprout in the "round.

Handling the Peanut Harvest

The days to maturity listed on the seed packet will give you a general idea of when your peanuts are ready to dig. but growing conditions can affect maturity time. If your plants begin to yellow, go ahead and dig them without delay. But most of the time, peanut plants are quite green when the pods are mature, so you'll need to dig up a sample plant or two to see if the nuts are ripe. Use a digging fork to loosen the soil around a plant lift it up (use two hands), shake well and then turn it over. Gather up the pods and shell the nuts. If 70 percent of the nuts have dark pink to red seed coats, and the insides of the shells also have turned a dark color, the entire planting should be harvested. Dig the plants, shake off the soil and lay the plants in the sun to dry. If a lot of dirt sticks to the pods, shake them a second time after they have been out of the ground for a day. You can hose off the nuts, too, but only if you have oven like weather to quickly dry them. Let the harvested plants dry in the sun for a week, and then set up a comfortable place in the shade to pick the nuts from the roots. Even if you harvest your peanuts on precisely the right day, 20 percent to 25 percent of the nuts will be immature, or green. The shells of green nuts are soft, and the skins on the seeds are not fully colored. With a little practice, you will be able to tell the difference between mature and green nuts without removing them from the shells. Set aside the green nuts and use them to make boiled peanuts (you can read the article How to Boil Peanuts for instructions at http://www.boiled-peanut-world.com/green-peanuts.html ). Spread out the mature nuts in a cool, dry place and allow them to dry for another two weeks before storing them in mesh bags. Kept cool and dry, cured peanuts will keep for several months, or you can shell them and store the raw kernels in your freezer for more than a year.

Raw vs. Roasted Peanuts

The roasting process changes peanut flavor, which is created by several hundred flavor compounds. I like the sweet chewiness of raw peanuts, but roasted ones are more versatile in recipes. You'll be ready for anything if you keep both forms on hand. Whether unshelled or shelled, peanuts scorch easily, so it's important to watch both the temperature and cooking time very closely. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and arrange peanuts in a single layer in a clean baking pan. I prefer lightly roasted peanuts, so I consider shelled Valencias to be done after 14 minutes. Larger Virginians take about three minutes longer. Roasted in the shell (which produces more of that delicious aroma), Valencias take about 17 minutes, and Virginians are ready in 22 minutes. Roasting makes peanut shells more brittle, which makes shelling them messier, but this is no big deal if you shell them outside.