Noticed there is no thread for goobers–so here it is!
What peanuts are you growing? How are you growing them? Tell us all about your goober peas!
I’ll go first! I’m new to peanut growing myself-- and am probably doing all sorts of stuff wrong. I selected the cultivar Tennessee Red because of its reported ease of growth, earliness, productivity and tolerance for heavy soils. I built a large ridge for improved drainage, fertilized only lightly (mostly kelp meal), and planted peanuts at 6" spacing. Used legume inoculant to ensure nitrogen fixing. Mulched ridge with rotted leaves.
They seem to be doing well, though I’m probably behind since I replanted twice because of seed rot and critters. Many pegs are already in the ground, and many others are reaching for it. (Hope they can make it!) Plants, once established, have shown no issues, save a little hopperburn earlier in season.
Will post some pics later. (Actually, posted this prematurely as I am fiddling around on a phone, and have stupid, clumsy fingers . . . “Somebody hand that man a sharp implement!” )
I’ve grown Tennessee Red before. They produced pretty well and the peanut was tasty, though I was lazy and didn’t want to crack all the nuts I got. Your plants look better than mine, so I bet you are going to get alot of peanuts!
My soil was alkaline, so I had to add additional iron. It is also a clay loam. I didn’t have as many sprouting in the pod, but some seeds did sprout in the pod in the ground (before I harvested). As I found out this spring, I also missed alot of seed, so expect to have the ones you missed pop up next year.
I did have issues with armyworms, but I’m not sure if you have those were you are at.
Have a little over four gallons of nuts in the hull, which I guess is not too horrible for a first try and a late planting. Tennessee Red can apparently be productive in this climate. Looks like very few rotten ones, though a few have minor discolorations/lesions which do not appear to affect kernels. Probably caused by our very rainy season.
Plenty of rhizobia nodules on the roots: they were definitely fixing ample nitrogen.
On the whole, an encouraging first attempt at home peanut culture. Will double my Tennessee Red planting next year, and also try another couple of cultivars.
Sandhill Preservation will have Schronce Black peanuts available next spring. They are worth growing from KY down to the gulf coast. I didn’t make much with Black and Texas Red & White peanuts this year having problems with germination of old seed. Barring incident, these will return to Sandhill’s catalog next year as I have plenty of seed.
I had 8 gallons of Schronce Black peanuts at harvest. After drying, they were down around 6 gallons. I then culled all of the peanuts that were shriveled, light weight, pre-germinated, or otherwise defective. The result was 2 gallons of pretty good peanuts to send to Glenn to sell. That may not sound like a lot, but 2 gallons of good peanuts in-shell will make around 500 packs to sell.
When it comes to drying peanuts, drying on the vine by hanging them over a wire works. If the weather has already cooled down too much, I recommend drying them indoors in front of a good dehumidifier. I get top quality peanuts for seed using the dehumidifier. I also get good results drying peanuts in the greenhouse.
Great advice, Darrel. Thanks! And I will definitely try out Schronce’s Deep Black next season.
My mom and grandmother grew Virginia-type peanuts for brittle-making many years ago, but I’d never tried doing it myself. Very fun and rewarding—and could be addictive!
If I had stayed on top of the weeds, they would’ve no doubt produced better. As things stand, though, my short row produced plenty of seed for next year’s larger planting.
“Shronce’s Deep Black” and “Tennessee Red” are definitely both worth trying in 6b Kentucky and similar climates.
I attempted “Texas Red and White” this year, too. They germinated well, but the rabbits wouldn’t leave them alone; they spent all their time regrowing and never got to set a crop. If I can get more seed, will try again next year. I like their habit—which is very compact—and their reported high tolerance for clay soils.
Anybody else have any luck with peanuts this season?
Peanuts are planted 6 inches apart in rows 42 inches apart. As noted above, they require regular weeding. Properly cared for, each plant should yield 100 to 300 peanuts each with 2 to 4 seed.
Yep, 6" is good. That’s how I’ve done all of mine. Because my soil is a little heavy, I plant in ridges—to improve drainage and facilitate production: also makes harvesting a lot easier! They seem to like a little mulch, as long as it’s not so thick/dense that it impedes pegging; I’ve had good luck with rotted leaves. Might also consider treating them with a legume inoculant rated for peanuts. That’ll ensure that they can set their own nitrogen. Peanuts don’t generally need a lot of fertilization. I usually toss on something slow release (e.g., kelp meal) at planting to provide any secondaries/micros that might be needed. The rotting leaf material probably also helps with this.
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