Growing Groundnuts at Home in your garden! Peanuts are commonly thought of as a snack, are actually healthy and nutritious food. The peanut, contrary to common perception, is not a nut. It’s a vegetable of the legume family, which also contains peas and beans. These tropical South American indigenous take around 120 days to develop, although the peanut plant can resist minor spring and fall frosts.
Unlike other plants, the peanut plant blossoms above ground but bears fruit underground. Depending on the type and variety, peanuts take 4 to 5 months to mature from planting to harvesting.
Here are some of the reasons why groundnut is so popular:
Many farmers cultivate groundnut for its nuts, oil, and vegetative waste.
Various people in many countries eat groundnut as peanut butter, while others crush it and use it to make groundnut oil.
At the same time, other people just eat groundnuts as a snack, boiled, roasted, salted, or in sweets.
Soil:
The topsoil should have a low clay percentage (less than 20%) and a loose structure. This will allow the reproductive roots to readily enter the soil. As a result, sandy loam soil rich in organic matter is the ideal type of soil for growing groundnuts. The ideal germination temperature for the environment should be between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, with a minimum of 18 degrees Celsius.
Timely field preparation allows for timely sowing, which results in a greater yield. All agricultural waste and weeds should be fully buried during land preparation. At this stage, ploughing and harrowing create seedbeds of fine tilt for optimum crop germination and growth.
Ploughing in the summer (just before the rainy/planting season) is beneficial because it exposes weed seeds, hibernating insects, and disease organisms to the heat of the summer.
Seeds:
Groundnut seed is prone to fungal decay in the soil as well. Fungicidal seed treatment will reduce rot and enhance field stand. So, it is advised that all seeds be treated before planting. It is also important to plant high-quality seeds. Better seeds will produce more healthy groundnuts
Crop Rotation:
Crop rotation is significant in groundnut farming because it improves nutrient use and decreases soil-borne illnesses and nematodes. It also aids in the reduction of weeds. Groundnut may be cultivated with maize, sorghum, pearl millet, and other minor grain crops.
Groundnuts thrive on soil with a pH range of 5.5 to 7.0. Certain elements, such as iron and zinc, become unavailable at pH values outside of this range. Being a leguminous crop, they can fix atmospheric nitrogen (N) with the help of root bacteria and so do not require nitrogen fertiliser.
Nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, sulphur, iron, and zinc are the most important fertiliser components for groundnuts. Boron, copper, molybdenum, magnesium, and manganese deficiencies can be addressed by applying these minerals to the soil when symptoms develop, depending on the soil type.
Watering:
Peanut trees require 1.5 to 2 inches of water each week; nevertheless, it takes just five gallons of water to produce an ounce of peanuts, compared to 80 gallons for an ounce of almonds. Farmers will irrigate their fields if rain does not satisfy their demands. Its roots create modules that collect nitrogen from the air and feed and nourish the plant and soil.
Planting for Gardeners:
To cultivate peanuts select the site with full sun, you must begin with fresh, raw, uncooked peanuts still in their shells.
To begin, fill a big, four-inch-deep plastic bowl with wet potting soil. Place four shelled peanuts on top of the dirt, then cover with one inch of soil. Plants will germinate fast. After the fear of frost has gone, transplant seedlings outside. Plant the peanut seeds in loose, well-drained soil two inches deep and eight inches apart. (To loosen the soil, mix in sand and old compost.)
Care of Plants:
When the plants are six inches tall, cultivate around them to soften the soil and allow the pegs to readily penetrate it. Then, much like potatoes, hill them up and cover with two inches of straw or grass clippings. Along the lowest portion of the stalk, little yellow pea-like blooms will appear. After the blooms fade, the seeds expand, begin to develop toward the earth, and finally push into the soil.
Peanuts are picked before the first frost when the plant turns yellow. With a spading fork, dig up the entire plant, carefully brush off most of the soil, and hang to dry indoors for approximately a month.
