I’ve also been meaning to try peanuts, so it’s interesting to see someone getting any harvest in the North. I should have grown peanuts while I lived in Kansas and the summers were plenty hot. I’ve found a lot of the hot-weather crops that did exceptionally well there (okra, tepary beans, cowpeas, sesame) are slow and sullen here, producing little if anything.
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The fastest maturing peanut I’ve grown is Black as sold by Sandhill Preservation. It is mature about 10 days earlier than Shronce Black. As a generalization, smaller peanuts mature faster than larger peanuts. A few varieties can mature in 100 days. For comparison, I harvested Black first, then Texas Red & White, then Bramling Pink, then Schronce Black. The last two were mature at the same time.
Peanuts mature at the plant crown first and then out the runners. Some of them will always be immature at harvest and should be culled as inedible. Even very short season areas should be able to grow and mature crown peanuts as they can be harvested in about 90 days. Optimizing and maximizing harvest is getting the most mature peanuts before they start germinating in the shells. Somewhere around 120 days is required to get maximum production for a given variety.
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Fruition seeds is where I purchased mine. They all germinated and came up. Highly recommend them.
Edit for context: I planted them sometime around 5/20 and you’re supposed to pull them once the frost hits but the plants were shriveled dead on 10/3 so I pulled them. Packet says they need 110 days.
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You planted peanuts directly in ground or sprouted seedlings indoors?
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Directly into containers outdoors. The type I got came in the shell, you gently crack them and put the seed into the earth.
Thank you for the info. I will start with the variety you mentioned.
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Ordered all 4 varieties from Sandhill Preservation (Black, Brambling Pink, Schronce Black and Texas Red and White) as well as 4 varieties from Southern exposure (Carwile’s Virginia, Fastigiata Pin Striped, Schronce’s Deep Black, and Tennessee Red Valencia) to get started and try growing peanuts for the first time this year.
Are Schronce Black and Schronce’s Deep Black the same or different cultivars? Ordered Schronce Black from Sandhill and Schronce’s Deep Black from Southern Exposure.
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They are the same, I got my seed in 2010 from a guy whose dad developed Schronce Black in the 1960’s or early 1970’s. Ira at Southern Exposure got seed from him at the same time. It started out as a black peanut with 2 or 3 nuts per shell. He selected for 4 or 5 nuts per shell and was reasonably successful.
You will find Black a bit sweeter and a tad earlier maturing than Schronce. My source on Black was Lewis Kilgore who lived near Rainsville Alabama and grew them for a lot of years. He gave me a handful in 2004 which I grew in 2005, then grew a full row in 2006. I sent them to Glenn at Sandhill about 2007 and he grew them successfully in Iowa. He said it was the first time he had been successful growing peanuts in his climate.
Bramling Pink is from a distant cousin who lived near Knoxville TN. It is very similar to a peanut Rodger Winn grew for and sold to Southern Exposure calling it Dutch Fork. Bramling is perhaps a week earlier maturing.
I got Texas Red & White from Southern Exposure about 15 years ago and have maintained it since.
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