Peanut tips?

[TomatoNut95]

Hello everyone! I'd like to try my hand at peanuts! Here's my questions:

1) What type of soil do they prefer?
2) Can they be grown in containers I hope; if so what size?
3) Do they require a lot of fertilize?
4) What times of the year can they be grown? Can I grow in the fall?
5) What insect infestations can they get?

[applestar]

I’m not the best one to answer this since I haven’t been successful much. Only managing to harvest a handful — just enough to try again next season ... very discouraging — haven’t tried in the last couple of years — but here are tips based on my FAILURES :

1) sandy
2) at least 1 ft cube
3) Peanut pods are flowers above ground/pollinated/pods-fruit burrowing themselves into and growing underground — so N in the beginning but once ready to bloom, not too much N, definitely P and K ... I believe calcium, magnesium, the other m___ (I can’t remember if I’m thinking of molybdenum or manganese, or both), silica, and selenium, zinc, too.
3+) oh yeah, peanut is legume and fixes nitrogen so definitely not too much nitrogen but I wonder if there is a rhizobium inoculate for peanuts?
4) 120 days to 150 HOT days — this need for long hot growing season is what makes it difficult for me, plus DRY harvesting weather (we get summer drought and fall RAINS)
5) period of 150 days spanning from late spring-summer-fall
6) don’t know about insects but ground digging animals are THE WORST — mainly chipmunks here but squirrels and ground squirrels for sure — whatever likes oily seeds
... I believe they can get weevils on the seeds, I’ve had corn seed maggots on seed peanuts planted too early trying to get an early start (they also go after squash and melon seeds) and flea beetles and aphids on the leaves

[TomatoNut95]

No chipmunks around here, but we do have squirrels. I don't have trouble with them, but if they should smell peanuts, they might.

Ok, so I'm out of time to start any now then? It'd be best if I waited until next spring and planted in March?

But what if you don't have sand and can't buy any either? However, I do know some friends and aquaintences that were blessed with nice, soft sandy soil instead of nasty, stinking concrete clay. I'm sure they'd let me do a little digging.

[applestar]

I don’t understand why keep saying you can’t buy sand. Sand should be available at any home center or hardware store that sells cement and concrete, patio pavers, bricks, etc.

[TomatoNut95]

Nope. I have yet to see bags of sand for sale around here unless it's sterilized play sand for kids, or landscaping sand that said not to use in the garden. I can get some sand if someone else will let me dig in their yard.

[applestar]

I think you might have incomplete information about adding sand to the clay soil — I’ve bumped the following discussion where hopefully others will also chime in and we can brainstorm:
Subject: what kind of perlite to amend soil

...but you might be interested in this post by toxcrusadr :

Careful with the sand - it's a well known fact that adding some but not enough sand to clay will result in concrete-like conditions in the summer with the clay acting as cement and the sand as aggregate. Actually it's more like mortar mix. You have to add on the order of 25-40% sand by volume. If you are looking to have raised beds anyway, this might work. Just add an equal amount of compost. However, it would be safer to add a soil with a coarser texture than clay but not pure sand, such as a silty or sandy silt topsoil. This way there is less chance of the concrete effect and you get something more like loam, which is roughly equal amounts of clay/silt/sand. Always add compost too.

If you just want to amend the clay, adding compost year after year with decreasing amounts of tilling and digging over the years will result in a nice soil. It takes time but it works.

...in other words, it’s OK to add sand.

[TomatoNut95]

Been there, tried clay + sand = concrete. Tried it in my front yard years ago. Turned hard as rock. When I meant I wanted sand I meant for putting it in containers to save money on expensive potting mix, and for stuff that prefer sand like peas, peanuts, strawberries and cactus. Maaaayyyybbeeee put some in my raised bed, but I don't know. There will get clay lumps in there from my digging, and if that sand mixes with that clay- big boo-boo. My raised bed will already get hard as rock when it's bone dry. I plan to renovate that garden, hopefully make it better and possibly bigger.

[imafan26]

Peanuts are legumes, and need about 150 days of warm and sun. They are a spreading plant so I put it in my garden amended with compost but it does not need a lot of nitrogen. It blooms about 5 weeks from seed and then the pegs will form on the end of the branches. The pegs need to stake themselves back into the soil and the peanuts will form around the pegs.

If you want to put peanuts in a pot, you can, but you need a wide pot so the plant can spread out and the pegs have somewhere to go.