Harvesting Peanuts at the Summer Country AreaToday, more and more farmers, owners of private plots and ordinary gardeners are interested in whether and how to grow peanuts on their own. Despite its southern origin, this useful agricultural crop is completely incomprehensible; with a certain application of forces, it can grow and produce a crop from the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory to the Moscow Region. Back in Soviet times, there was an experience of successful cultivation of peanuts in the Stavropol region, in the territories of the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, in Ukraine. Thanks to the enthusiasm of today's gardeners, the cultivation of peanuts has been mastered in central Russia.
Peanuts: peculiarities of the crop and its cultivation.
Peanuts are an annual herbaceous plant, with willingly branching stems, numerous flowers formed in the axils, yellow or reddish in color and characteristic of leguminous paristowed leaves, divided into several small oval leaves. Shoots with a length of 20 to 70 cm are upright and dormant. The height of the bush in the garden depends on the variety, the conditions created for the cultivation of peanuts or peanuts, as well as external factors.
The heat-loving inhabitant of the South American plateaus at home does not suffer from a lack of heat and light, therefore, full vegetation, successful growth, flowering, tying beans and their ripening peanuts require from 120 to 160 days. At the same time, the plant does not tolerate frosts and begins to grow actively only when the soil temperature is at least 12–15 ° C.
The formation of the ovary and its further ripening in peanuts is completely different from other legumes. Self-pollinating flowers live only a day, after which the appendix with the ovary descends to the ground and literally goes into it. So, peanuts are poured and ripened under a layer of soil. The depth of burrowing can be from 5 to 12 cm, and inside each bean there is from one to seven seeds.
The shorter, rainy the climate is colder, the more difficult it is to grow peanuts and to get the desired crop of tasty “nuts” from plants. However, modern protective materials and the possibility of growing in greenhouses greatly reduce the risks.
How to grow peanuts in the country?
Like all legumes, peanuts quickly hatch and grow. Therefore, when growing it is always focused on climatic features and weather. Depending on the region, they conduct:
- planting peanuts in open ground;
- sowing seeds at home, and then grown seedlings are transferred to the beds;
- growing indoors, namely in greenhouses with a cover of film or nonwoven material.
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Before planting peanuts in the garden, you should prepare the planting material and soil. The peanut does not impose special requirements on the soil, but prefers loose, light soils, where it will be comfortable with both long taproot roots and an ovary that goes underground.
Culture grows well on sandy soils and loams, but if it is to be planted in black soil, sand, lowland peat, and other components that improve the air permeability of the substrate are introduced into the soil.
The seeds to be planted are sifted, separated from those damaged or affected by mold fungi, and then soaked for 12-24 hours in a napkin. It is sometimes advised to remove the pinkish-red skin from the peanuts in advance. However, in this case, you need to act very carefully so as not to damage the slightly protruding “beak” of the future germ.
Swollen seeds ready for planting. If the weather permits, they can be immediately embedded in the open ground, deepening by 5–7 cm. The planting scheme of this legume culture requires that plants be spud in summer, and every bush needs a place to feed and comfortably place the ovary. Best when planting peanuts in open ground between rows leave 50–70 cm gaps, and the interval between plants should not be less than 20 cm. Sowing is carried out from May to mid-June.
When it comes to growing peanuts at home in Ukraine, in the Kuban or Stavropol region, in the Astrakhan and Saratov regions, it is sown after planting melons, which also do not like sharp temperature fluctuations.
Peanut: peanut cultivation in a seedling way
In regions with a lingering spring, where there is a risk of returning the cold, it is better not to risk it. For example, before growing peanuts in the Urals, in the Moscow region, in Belarus and even in the north of the Black Soil Region, it is first planted in rather large peat pots.
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In this case:
- transfer to the beds takes place at the beginning of summer;
- root system of an adult plant is not injured;
- there is no risk of freezing;
- acclimatization passes quickly and without problems.
For a strong seedling sowing is carried out in April. Prepared seeds are buried to a depth of 3 cm and put in a well-lit place where the plants will not suffer from drafts. Watering for this variety of legumes needs regular, but moderate. The air temperature in the room is kept at 22–25 ° C.
Before growing peanuts in their own land, the culture is picked up as bright as the house, protected from the cold wind.
Cultivated tall plants such as corn, tomatoes, and squash and summer squash can be a good defense to the southern guests in Russian gardens. They will be the best predecessors for legumes.
For acclimatization, it is useful to use film greenhouses or shelters made of dense non-woven material.
Peanut planting care at the
country house Unlike beans, peas and other legumes, the care of which focuses on weeding and watering, when growing peanuts, a gardener will often have to arm themselves with a hoe or other convenient tool for hilling. In order for the ovaries of the plant to easily penetrate the soil, it has to be often, but carefully loosened.
Weeding needs peanuts until it reaches adult size. Then weeds appear only between the rows, and they are easy to remove without disturbing the cultivated plants.
Watering, especially after the formation of the ovary, is carried out moderately, as the upper layer of the soil dries out. And by the end of the growing season, when the underground beans should be strengthened, further reduced. In spring and summer, peanuts respond well to supplements with a moderate nitrogen content and an increased percentage of potassium and phosphorus.
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For the season, there is enough three-time fertilizer application, but you should not use natural organic matter for dressing, for example, manure or bird droppings.
Harvesting peanuts at the summer cottage
It’s not enough to know how to grow peanuts in the country, it is important to be able to harvest them in time and save the harvest.
When collecting underground beans need to focus on the state of greenery. As soon as the bushes turn yellow and begin to fade, this should be a signal for digging. Loose, it is easy to lose most of the beans, which quickly fall from the dried underground shoots and remain in the ground for the winter.
Even green plants will have to be pulled out if the air temperature drops and is nearing +10 ° C.
The best time to clean is a warm, dry day. And the best tool - strong forks with wide teeth. Digging shovel is not suitable because of the risk of losing part of the crop. The plants removed from the soil are tied up and hung in a dry ventilated room to dry. The summer resident can recognize the readiness for long-term storage by the dry, booming sound of seeds rolling inside the bean.
Video about growing peanuts
