Allotments 4 All

Hi

I was on the seeds of italy site and seen PEANUT SOMALA and i am intrested.

I cant believe that you can actualy get penuts to grow on the allotment !

can someone tell me more.

cambourne7

I think we are too far North, even with global warming.... Think deep south/Jimmy Carter etc... Like Okra it really is too far North..
:(

Geoff hamilton said... best for sunny/warm climate but in colder areas start them off in pots around March, or later in the ground setting 6 inches apart, later still thinning to 12 inches apart. Earth up the plants when 6 inches tall and mulch thickly, stop watering when the plants begin to flower - harvest 5/12 after sowing - they like light sandy soil  :)

Hi,
Give the peanuts a try. I'm in the Netherlands and our climate is almost similar to yours. So no deep south, but western European sea climate.
Since the last few summers were very warm I thought it might work and with the motto: If Jimmy Carter can do it, so can you, I grew peanuts on my allotment this year.

In march I put some 40 peanuts 'for birds' (unroasted) in a homemade growing bag (plastic bag with stuff for potting plants) and put it in my window sill which is over a radiator.
To my surprise all the peanuts germinated within two weeks. I potted them in rather large pots as their roots are very long.
In may, after the last frost was expected, I planted them in my garden and they have been doing very well. Despite the heatwave in June and the heavy rain in August there are small peanuts forming. I took out one plant just to see how they were getting on and I will leave them for another month. By then they should be fine.

But how to roast peanuts?

Got to be worth a try!


Re roasting, this site seems to be worth checking out:

http://www.vapeanuts.com/how-to-roast-virginia-peanuts.html

Thanks for the link. Will definitely try this at home.

BTW I did grow okra as well. About 10 plants produced 8 edible fingers, so that's rather disappointing. But I didn't protect them against wind and evening temperatures.
Next year I'll try again and put some stakes and plastic around them just to shield them and to contain the warmth during the evening.
To be continued.

i will - i cant wait :-)

i love peanuts !

i am just wondering though if someone has a nut allergy in the site will they be affected?

Only if they nick and eat yours... in which case they have only themselves to blame....
Beware this Site may contain Nuts!
;D

Yes i should pop a sign up simular to beware of dog to beware of penut or should that be allotment nut?

haha

Hi Cambourne7 (and other readers)

Thought I give you an update on the peanuts.

About two weeks ago I harvested the lot.  I noticed that the one's on the outside of the block had the largerst peanuts (shopsize), whereas the ones inside the block had smaller peanuts.
I planted them about 20 cm apart, but should perhaps have put them 25-30 cm from eachother.

One plant gives 10-20 nuts, but then I'm counting the small, one-nut-in-a-shell as well. Some shells contain developed nuts, other had just a small, shrivelled black thingy inside.
Some peanuts had been 'attacked' by a worm and showed a small hole in the shell.  Obviously the hole left the peanut vulnerable to wetness. The shells with a hole were more likely to be black and mushy.

But I got a good crop anyway. I roasted them, unshelled, in the oven (with hot air circulation fan) for about 30 min. at 180C. They tasted nice, but were still a bit soft, so I left them on the tray while baking my croissants. Then, after cooling, the nuts were OK.  And they taste great.

So my peanut experiment went Ok. Nice-looking plant, good crop and as a bonus: they cover the ground and don't need a lot of attention (aka weeding and/or watering).
But they do take up a lot of space for a long time. It was fun, but I will only grow them again when I've got a bigger allotment.

Wow

I am so envoious now!

I wonder if planting them in a pot would work?

cambourne7