Growing Peanuts
- Thread starter AjarnV
- Start date
Well, my wife went crazy with planting peanuts and we're going to have a bunch (I love salted boiled [in their shells] peanuts).
How does one know when they're ripe?
according to Burpee's Complete Gardener (I have a 1995 Edition. which means I've had it for over half of my life... so crazy), the plants will start to yellow at around harvest time. Generally they are harvested right before cold weather set in, says the book.
Then I'm in big trouble; cold here is 21c.
So, when they start yellowing; thanks. Does it say how long from sprout to fruit?
Nope.
AjarnV, they're a fairly long season crop (about the same as chinense chiles) and after the plants start to yellow I just dig a few to check maturity and if ready pull up the whole plant, allow them to dry a little, then pick them.
I really like boiled peanuts as well and although I haven't grown any in my garden for 3 years, I still have a few wild volunteer plants in the garden today. The deer love to dig em up too.
If you wait until the plant is dead you'll have some rotten peanuts, but if you harvest earlier you will have some immature nuts. It's up to you, would you rather have a few rotten or a few immature? Also, the longer they are in the ground the more probable something else will eat them besides you. 
SS,
In all honesty, I don't know when to harvest them. The books say after the killing frost - unless the ground stays wet. That will cause them to rot. A reader found one in his yard last year, dug it up after the frost (it was dead!) and stuck it in a pot with some potting mix then gave it to me. A couple of weeks later, I removed it and got about 11 pods with at least two nuts per pod - and it was not a big plant.
I don't think there is a great possibility of varmints eating the peanuts as they grow underground. Most growers say the risk to the plants is greater while they are growing, not once they have "set fruit" so to speak.
YMMV,
Mike
In all honesty, I don't know when to harvest them. The books say after the killing frost - unless the ground stays wet. That will cause them to rot. A reader found one in his yard last year, dug it up after the frost (it was dead!) and stuck it in a pot with some potting mix then gave it to me. A couple of weeks later, I removed it and got about 11 pods with at least two nuts per pod - and it was not a big plant.
I don't think there is a great possibility of varmints eating the peanuts as they grow underground. Most growers say the risk to the plants is greater while they are growing, not once they have "set fruit" so to speak.
YMMV,
Mike
Deer, coon, rats, and mice dig and eat plenty here when given the opportunity. Deer damage the plants the most while digging.
No idea what variety we have; they look like "normal" peanuts. So, October then, or there abouts. Thanks.
Having gardened up a mountain where I practiced target shooting in my back yard with my .44 mag., I can verify all of the above. A friend had a deer clear his 8' deer fence going in, but the deer couldn't get back over to leave; damn that was some good eating.
I prefer my deer bbq'd rather than poached
While I wouldn't argue that point; sometimes ya do what ya gotta do. At least nothing went to waste. There have been times in my life when there was no money for meat on the table; so we let nature provide.
I rarely eat any kind of meat now; much prefer the vegetarian side of things; one of life's wonderful lessons. Cheers.
Thanks for that, good to know. My wife didn't plant them all at the same time, so hopefully we'll have an ongoing harvest.
They give you a while too harvest them when they turn yellow. 3 months to harvest in Thailand and like a weed, see them growing along the road. Cool to grow when your new to growing them. Yellow flowers that bury after done to turn in to about 2 to 5 peanuts and about 3 to 9 flowers. Can grow in bad dirt and very tough not needing babing. Just drop a few seeds every month.
That's good to know; thanks for the info. We're probably 30 days out for the first harvest. Cheers.