We are used to the fact that nuts grow on trees, but the fruits of this plant, also called nuts, ripen underground. How does peanuts grow and can it be grown in the middle lane? We will try to answer these and other questions in this article.

How and where does peanuts grow?

The homeland of peanuts, which belongs to the legume family and the genus peanuts, is South America. The introduction of this plant into the culture of the world is due to the agricultural chemist George Carver from the USA In this country, peanuts are not only one of the main crops, but also a widely consumed food product.

Peanuts are seeds of an annual herbaceous plant that is a distant relative of beans and peas. It grows peculiarly. When the yellow or yellow-orange moth-type flowers collected in the brush are pollinated, the peduncle with an ovary at the end grows in length and gradually tends to the ground. After penetrating the soil on it, seeds are formed, enclosed in a hard shell. The most fruitful peanut varieties produce up to 40 beans from one bush.

Peanuts are a thermophilic culture. Its main producers are China and India. Large areas are occupied under peanuts in the USA, Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan and Senegal. The question of where peanuts grow in Russia can be answered: in the Kuban and in the Stavropol Territory. They grow it in Ukraine and Belarus.

Varieties of varieties

The success of growing peanuts in the middle lane is very much dependent on 2 components: weather and varieties. And, if we are not in control of the weather, then it is quite possible to choose a suitable variety, all the more so thanks to the selection, many new ones are brought up that are not so demanding on heat.

In 2005, the Otradokubansky peanut variety was introduced in the State Register of Agricultural Achievements. It was bred at the Kuban experimental station VIR and is recommended for cultivation in all regions of our country. There are other varieties for the middle band: Klinsky, Stepnyak, Krasnodar 14, Bayan, Georgian. If you cannot buy seeds of these varieties, you can conduct an experiment with “foreigners”. These are Runner, Valencia, Virginia and Spanish.

With any method of cultivation, you must follow the basic rules for caring for the crop.

Peanut Care Rules

When growing a nut, you must observe the laws dictated by the biological characteristics of the plant.

  • The soil for cultivation should be light and loose. Most suitable is sandy loam, light loam, sand or chernozem. Heavy soils are improved by the addition of sand and peat.
  • The acidity of the soil should be close to neutral.
  • Plants from the legume family cannot be the precursors of peanuts.
  • Seedlings are planted when the soil warms up to 15 degrees Celsius. The temperature range in which the plant is comfortable 18-28 degrees. If the nights are cold, a temporary film cover should be provided.
  • The distance between rows is 60 cm, between plants in a row is 15-30 cm. If beans are sown with seeds, 3 sprouted nuts are placed in each hole. In addition to the ordinary method, a square-nested one with a distance between the nests of 70 cm is also used.
  • The bed is prepared in the fall, fertilizing it with humus - 2 kg per square meter and adding 50 g of complex fertilizer to the same area.
  • The bed should always be clean from weeds, the soil is loosened as often as possible.
  • Watering plants need not waiting for the drying of the soil and only water heated in the sun. Excess moisture can trigger the development of diseases caused by fungi, so when watering, you need to observe the middle ground.

With a lack of moisture, peanuts stop growing, and fertilized flowers die in dry land after 2 days.

  • 2 weeks before harvesting, watering is stopped.
  • The appearance of flowers is a signal for hilling plants. Up to 6 hills are made per season. The peanut flower lives only one day, so you can not hesitate with this procedure. Hills are carried out to a height of up to 40 cm, they do this every decade from the beginning of flowering until the first of August.
  • Top dressing of this culture is carried out 3 times per season: during the formation of the second pair of true leaves, in the budding phase, at the beginning of fruiting. Use complete mineral fertilizers according to the norms indicated on the package. Top dressing with nitrogen in August inhibits the maturation of beans.
  • Harvested in September, choosing a dry sunny day.
  • To keep the nuts well stored, they need to be dried.

Growing peanuts in the middle lane

Peanut beans can be grown at home, in the country or garden: in the open ground, greenhouse or in a warm garden.

In the garden

Peanuts have a long growing season - the nuts ripen no earlier than 4 months after germination. If we take into account that the plant develops only in heat, and during cooling it stops growing, it becomes clear that one cannot do without growing seedlings in the middle lane. Groundnuts are planted in the ground when the earth warms up to +15 degrees. This usually happens in early June. To dig up beans in early September, seedlings are planted at the age of 1.5-2 months. Therefore, they need to be sown for seedlings in early April. Lay the nuts in separate cups to a depth of about 3 cm. But first they need to be disinfected in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for 15 minutes and germinated between two moist cotton pads. After a couple of days, the roots will appear. Seedling care is simple: watering as needed. It should be placed in a bright place.

As soon as warm weather is established, seedlings are planted on prepared beds and take care of the plants, observing all the rules of agricultural technology.

At home

You can treat yourself to nuts grown at home on the windowsill.Seed preparation and seedling cultivation are similar to those given above. When a pair of real leaves appears, the plants are transferred into spacious pots with the preservation of an earthen coma. The pot should be chosen as wide as possible, and the soil should be loose. A mixture of turf land, a small amount of humus and sand is suitable.

What is needed for the successful development of the plant?

  • Sunny windowsill. In the hottest hours, peanuts are best shaded.
  • Frequent, but not deep loosening.
  • Timely watering and top dressing.
  • Bending the tops to the ground with special struts.

In the summer cottage, peanuts grow well in sheltered ground.

In the greenhouse

To save greenhouse space, peanut crops are often combined with planting tomatoes. The benefits for plants are mutual: peanuts enrich the soil with nitrogen, and tomatoes shade it from the sun in the hottest hours. It is necessary to provide a sufficient development area for each crop - plant peanuts closer to the walls of the greenhouse, and increase the distance between the tomatoes. You should choose undersized varieties of tomatoes. The greenhouse is often aired. The soil is loosened, and the plants do not forget to spud.

On the warm beds

This is another alternative to successfully growing peanuts. On a warm bed, it grows better and gives a good harvest. Agricultural cultivation does not differ from that in open ground, but you need to take care of the warm bed in the fall. To do this, remove the soil from the prepared beds on the bayonet of a shovel and lay it on both sides, making sides. They fill the formed surface with plant residues without laying waste from legumes. The layer of residues should not be thinner than 10 cm. Half-ripened compost is poured on top of them. They close it, raking the ground from the sides. Such a bed earlier warms up and for a long time gives off the heat obtained by overheating of the organic mass.

 

Growing peanuts is not only an interesting experience for a gardener. If you follow all the rules of agricultural technology, even in the middle lane you can get a good harvest of this heat-loving crop.

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