How to Grow Peanuts
Growing peanuts in your home garden is easy and low maintenance. You can produce peanuts in just a few months as long as you have a long warm growing season. They are better for southern areas than northern.
Seeds to grow peanuts come in the shell just like the peanuts in shells you'll find at the grocery store. I'm not sure if those are treated to prevent them from growing, so get some quality seeds to start with.
As soon as you're ready to plant your peanuts, crack the shells and plant each peanut seperately in your garden plot. Check out the blog post linked below for instructions on how deep and how far apart to plant the peanuts.
It's so easy even kids can do it. We planted these in our preschool garden.
In about a week, the peanuts will germinate and send up some tiny leaves. Over the next few months they will grow into peanut plants. All of the peanuts grow under the ground at the bottom of the plant just like potatoes. Check out the blog post to see how long it takes for the peanuts to produce.
Once the plants put on flowers, it's almost time for harvesting. The flowers will begin to fade and the plants will begin to brown. That's when you know it's time to harvest your peanuts. If there is danger of frost, go ahead and dig up your peanuts, if you leave them in the ground past frost, your peanuts will rot.
Pull up the entire plant and shake the dirt off the roots. Then you can pick the peanuts off the plant. Another method is to leave them on the plant and hang them to dry in a cool, dry place. Either way, they need to cure for several weeks and then they are ready to eat.
The peanuts we grew were far larger than the ones we planted. It was really fun to see how they grew.
Comments
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A lot of the farmers in the recent years have planted peanuts instead of cotton and soybeans. Also, there are a few farmers that plant sweet "taters". There are good profits in both of there crops. Wish I had a place to plant one or the other or both. This is the Delta close to the Mississippi River and even closer to two or three rivers that flood yearly. FYI
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I live in Oregon and the squirrels bury the peanuts for safe keeping in my flower beds. I eventually learned those little green plants with yellow flowers are peanut plants and not weeds. So much fun to see this happening in my yard.
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How fun! I love that you learned it instead of throwing them all away. Squirrels sure are crafty!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Do the plants need alot of sun?
How close do U plant them...or how far apart...
Hey Christina!
This is so cool! I can't find raw peanuts where I live so I would love to try my hand at this! Can peanuts be grown in a container or do I need to plant them in the ground?
Thanks!