Arachis hypogaea
peanut
Common names: groundnut
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 20 cm, rows 45 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Apr–May
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 2 °C
- Water need
- Medium
- For children
- Well suited
Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen · Public Domain · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The peanut is botanically a legume and not a tree. After pollination the fruit stems bend downward and push the pods into the soil where they mature underground. This fascinating process makes it a wonderful plant for a children's garden. It can grow in warm, sunny locations or in a pot on a south-facing window even in the DACH region.
Care instructions
Remove the peeled kernels in April and grow them in a warm pot. Plant them from mid‑May in the warmest, full‑sun spot in loose, sandy soil. Lightly mound the flowering plants so the fruit stems can find the soil. Keep the soil loose and harvest in October by digging up the whole plant including the root area, then dry the nuts in a ventilated area.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–May
HarvestSep–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 15 °C, ideally 28 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 3 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, humus-rich, well-drained
Give the peanut a loose, sandy-loamy, well-drained soil. It pushes its fertilised flowers into the soil to ripen (geocarpy), and the pods need easily diggable, crust-free soil for this. Heavy clay soil, compaction and waterlogging lead to rot and are to be avoided. Before planting, work in some mature compost and, if needed, sand; a slightly acidic to neutral pH (around 5.8 to 6.5) keeps the nodule bacteria symbiosis intact. Above pH 7 and with excess lime it is disrupted.
Legumes collect nitrogen through nodule bacteria and are an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders. They themselves need a break of about 4 years in the same spot.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Apr–May
As a legume, the peanut largely supplies itself with nitrogen from the air through nodule bacteria on the roots. In spring before planting out (from mid-May after the last frosts), work in only a little mature compost shallowly; this covers the remaining nutrient requirement without upsetting the nitrogen balance. Avoid nitrogen-heavy fertiliser, because it slows nodule formation. During the ripening phase, pod formation benefits from soil that is well supplied with calcium in the upper soil layer.
Overwintering
The peanut is an annual and not hardy. It dies after the first frosty night and cannot be overwintered. Harvest the pods in September/October before the first ground frost by pulling the plant out with a digging fork; in spring, start new plants indoors from February/March and plant them out after the Ice Saints in mid-May.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate the peanut exclusively by sowing. Use unroasted, unsalted peanuts as seed, either still in the shell or as whole kernels with an undamaged thin seed coat. Soak the kernels in water overnight before sowing so that they germinate faster. From the end of March to early April, raise the plants warm and bright: place one kernel about 2 cm deep in a pot of low-nutrient seed compost and keep it at 20 to 25 °C. Germination takes about one to two weeks. Not before the Ice Saints in mid-May, when the soil has warmed to at least 15 °C, plant the young plants about 25 cm apart in a fully sunny, wind-sheltered spot with loose, sandy soil. The peanut forms its fruits underground: after flowering, so-called gynophores (carpophores) push actively downwards into the soil, where the fruits develop. Make sure the soil stays loose and moist so that this works. Since the plant is an annual and self-pollinating, a single plant is enough to obtain new seed for the next year. The harvest takes place about four to five months after sowing, in September or October, as soon as the foliage begins to yellow.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example CarrotCeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCoriander and 21 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example PumpkinPickling cucumberButternutHokkaidoPatissonSpaghetti squash and 13 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example ChivesWild daffodilRocamboleElephant garlicRed OnionShallot and 9 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow peanut yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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