How to grow peanuts in your country house
Peanuts or peanuts - a thermophilic plant, originally from South America, then migrated to Asia and Africa. Today, more and more farmers, owners of personal plots and ordinary summer residents are interested in whether and how to grow peanuts on their own. Despite its southern origin, this useful agricultural crop is not at all capricious; with a certain application of forces, it can grow and give a harvest from the Crimea and 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 Caucasus and Central Asia, in Ukraine. Thanks to the enthusiasm of today's gardeners, the cultivation of peanuts has been mastered in central Russia.
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Peanuts: features of the culture and its cultivation
The peanut is a herbaceous annual plant with willingly branching stems, numerous axillary flowers, yellow or reddish in color, and typical for legumes, paired-pinnate leaves, divided into several small oval leaves. Shoots from 20 to 70 cm long are erect and lodging. The height of a bush in the garden depends on the variety, conditions created for growing peanuts or peanuts, as well as external factors.
The heat-loving inhabitant of the South American plateaus at home does not lack warmth and light, therefore, full vegetation, successful growth, flowering, setting beans and their ripening, peanuts require 120 to 160 days. At the same time, the plant does not tolerate frost and begins to grow actively only at a soil temperature of at least 12-15 ° C.
The shorter, colder and rainy the climate, the more difficult it is both to grow peanuts and to get the desired harvest of tasty nuts from the plants. However, modern protective materials and the possibility of growing in closed ground significantly reduce the risks.
How to grow peanuts in the country?
Like all legumes, peanuts hatch pretty quickly and grow. Therefore, when growing it, they are always guided by climatic features and weather. Depending on the region, they carry out:
- planting peanuts in open ground;
- sowing seeds at home, and then transferring the grown seedlings to the beds;
- cultivation in closed ground, namely in greenhouses with a cover made of film or non-woven material.
Before planting peanuts in the garden, you should prepare the planting material and soil. Peanuts do not have any special requirements for the soil, but prefers loose, light soils, where it will be comfortable for long taproots and an ovary that goes underground.
The culture takes root well on sandy soils, loams, but if it is to be planted in black soil, sand, low-lying peat and other components that improve the air permeability of the substrate are first introduced into the soil.
The seeds intended for planting are sorted out, damaged or affected by a mold fungus, and then soaked in a napkin for 12-24 hours.Sometimes it is advised to first remove the pinkish-red skin covering the cotyledons from the peanuts. However, in this case, one must act very carefully so as not to damage the slightly protruding "beak" of the future sprout.
The swollen seeds are ready to plant. If the weather permits, they can be immediately embedded in open ground, deepening by 5–7 cm. The planting scheme for this leguminous crop provides that the plants will have to be hilled in summer, and each bush needs a place to feed and comfortably place the ovary. It is best when planting peanuts in open ground between rows to leave gaps of 50–70 cm, and the interval between plants should not be less than 20 cm. Sowing is carried out from May to mid-June.
If we are talking about 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.
Peanuts: growing peanuts in seedlings
In regions with a long spring, where there is a risk of cold weather returning, 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 Chernozem region, they are first planted in large enough peat pots.
In this case:
- transfer to the beds takes place at the beginning of summer;
- the root system of the grown plant is not injured;
- there is no danger of freezing;
- acclimatization is quick and easy.
To obtain strong seedlings, sowing is carried out in April. The prepared seeds are planted to a depth of 3 cm and placed in a well-lit place where the plants will not suffer from drafts. Watering for this variety of legumes needs regular but moderate watering. The room temperature is maintained at 22-25 ° C
Before growing peanut on their own site, the culture is selected the same light as at home, a place protected from the cold wind.
Cultivated tall plants, such as corn, tomatoes, as well as squash and squash, can provide a good protection for southern guests in Russian gardens. They will also be the best predecessors for legumes.
For acclimatization, it is useful to use film greenhouses or shelters made of dense non-woven material.
Caring for planting peanuts in the country
Unlike beans, peas and other legumes, in the care of which the main attention is paid to weeding and watering, when growing peanuts, the gardener will often have to arm himself not with a watering can, but with a hoe or other convenient tool for hilling. In order for the ovary of a plant to easily penetrate into the ground, it has to be often but carefully loosened.
Peanuts need weeding until they reach adult size. Then weeds appear only in the aisles, and they are easy to remove without disturbing the cultivated plants.
Watering, especially after the formation of the ovary, is carried out in moderation, as the top layer of the soil dries out. And by the end of the growing season, when the underground beans should get stronger, they are additionally reduced. In spring and summer, peanuts respond well to feeding with a moderate nitrogen content and an increased percentage of potassium and phosphorus.
Three times fertilization is enough for the season, but it is not worth using natural organic matter for feeding, for example, manure or bird droppings.
Harvesting peanuts at their summer cottage
It is not enough to know how to grow peanuts in the country, it is important to be able to harvest them on time and preserve the harvest.
When collecting underground beans, you need to focus on the state of the greenery. As soon as the bushes turn yellow and start to fade, this should be a signal for digging. After delaying, it is easy to lose most of the beans, which quickly fall off 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 approaches + 10 ° C.
The best time to clean is a warm, dry day. And the best tool is a sturdy, wide-tooth pitchfork.The shovel is not suitable for digging because of the risk of losing part of the crop. Plants removed from the ground 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, echoing sound of seeds rolling inside the bean.