Common name: peanut

Botanical name: Arachis hypogaea

Origin: South America

Varieties

Few varieties are available. Try either Virginia or Spanish peanuts, whichever is available in your area. If you can find raw peanuts at the grocery store, plant those.

Description

The peanut is a tender annual belonging to the pea family. It grows six inches to 21/2 feet tall, depending on whether it's the bunch type, which grows upright, or the runner type, which spreads out over the ground. Small clusters of yellow, sweet pea - like flowers grow on stems called pegs. The pegs grow down and push into the soil, and the nuts develop from them one to three inches underground. You can grow a peanut plant indoors if you give it lots of sunlight; it's a novel and entertaining houseplant. Peanuts are 30 percent protein and 40 to 50 percent oil. George Washington Carver penetrating a heavy clay soil. When you're preparing the soil for planting, work in a complete, well-balanced fertilizer at the rate of one pound per 100 square feet or 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Plant either shelled raw peanuts or transplants six to eight inches apart, in rows 12 to 18 inches apart. If you're growing from seed, plant the seeds one to three inches deep. Grow them in double rows to save space.

Fertilizing and watering

Fertilize before planting and again at midseason, at the same rate as the rest of the garden. Keep soil moisture even until the plants start to flower, then water less. Blind (empty) pods are the result of too much rain or humidity at flowering time.

Special handling

Use a heavy mulch to keep the soil surface from becoming hard - the peanut pegs will not have to work so hard to become established in the soil. Mulching will also make harvesting easier.

Pests

Local rodents will be delighted that you've become a peanut farmer. Discourage them by removing their hiding places and fencing them out of your garden. Peanuts have no other serious pest problems. In warm climates they are a good crop for the organic gardener.

Diseases

Peanuts have no serious disease problems.

When and how to harvest

Time from planting to harvest is 120 to 150 days. Your yield depends on the variety of peanut and the weather at the time of flowering, but usually there are not as many peanuts as you might imagine. Start harvesting when the plants begin to suffer from frost. Pull up the whole plant and let the pods dry on the vine.

Storing and preserving

Shelled peanuts can be sprouted, frozen, or used for peanut butter, or roasted for snacks. Dried shelled peanuts can be stored in a cool, dry place for 10 to 12 months.

Serving suggestions

You probably won't be able to resist eating your peanuts as snacks, but if you've got lots, make peanut butter. Run the nuts through a meat grinder for crunchy peanut butter; for the smooth kind put them in the blender. And imagine homemade peanut butter cookies with homegrown peanuts - you'll be one up on everyone at the school bazaar. Add peanuts and candied orange peel to a fudge recipe - it makes a delicious crunchy candy.