Who has never eaten peanuts? The truth is that they taste delicious and, also, unless you are allergic you can have a very nice experience growing it in the garden or on the balcony. It is not very difficult, in fact, getting the plant to produce a decent amount of fruit will not take you more than a few months.
Now, for that you have to know how is peanut cultivation. So if you have no idea where to start, read on. 🙂
Peanut plant characteristics
The peanut plant, whose scientific name is Arachis hypogaea, It is a herbaceous legume native to Brazil that reaches a height of about 70-75cm. Throughout the spring it produces yellow flowers that, once pollinated, produce pods with 3-5 seeds.
As a very interesting fact, it must be added that, like all legumes, it fixes nitrogen in the soil where it is planted.
How is the cultivation?
If you would like to try freshly harvested peanuts, you should do the following:
- Siembra:
- Buying seeds (peanuts) in spring: you can find them at any nursery or garden store. They also sometimes sell in organic greengrocers.
- Seedbed Preparation: Fill a seedling tray with seedbed substrate (like this one from here) and water conscientiously.
- Seed placement: place a maximum of 2 in each socket and cover them with a thin layer of substrate.
- Maintenance: go watering whenever necessary, avoiding that the substrate remains dry.
- Transplant: when the seedlings have reached an easily manipulable size (about 10cm high), it will be time to transfer them to individual pots with universal growing substrate (you can get it here) or in the garden. In both cases they must be exposed to direct sun.
- Pot: the pot has to be 20cm in diameter or more. In addition, it is important that it has holes for the water to drain.
- Orchard: first of all, you have to remove the wild grass, the stones and pave the ground a bit. Then, you can plant the peanuts in rows, leaving a distance between them of 20-30cm.
- Care:
- Irrigation: frequent. It is necessary to avoid that the substrate or the earth dries up.
- Fertilizer: important to pay throughout the season with organic fertilizers, such as guano. You can get it in liquid form here (for pots) and powder here (for orchard).
- Wild herbs: they must be removed so that they do not rob the peanuts of nutrients, and to prevent pests.
- Preventive treatments: although they are not very vulnerable to pests or diseases, it does not hurt to treat them with neem oil once a month. You can get it here.
- Harvest: the peanuts will be ready after 5-6 months after sowing. You will see that the plant dries up and the leaves turn yellow. Just then you have to remove it from the ground or the pot carefully and leave it in the sun for two days. After that time, you can finally taste them.
Take advantage! 🙂