Yorkville Enquirer

HOW TO GROW PEANUTS

Soil, Variety, Preparation and Fertilizer.

GOOD SEED OF GREAT IMPORTANCE

Plowing, About the Same as For Corn -There Must be Plenty of Lime- Must be Kept Clean of Grass and Weeds.

C. L. Newman in Progressive Farmer.

The peanut is not so easy to grow as some folks think, and it is not so hard to grow as some others think. Compared with other crops, the peanut is about the average. With good seed of a variety adapted to the soil and given the right kind of treatment from soil preparation to market, a fair crop may be made on rather a wide range of soil types, and it is more or less extensively grown in the Carolinas and Virginia.

I.-The Climate and Areas That Suit Peanuts.

Cold, especially cold nights, is detrimental to peanuts. The large-pod varieties require about 130 days to mature, and these kinds are not adapted to the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia. This is because of the cold nights in the spring and fall and in part to the heavy rainfall. A light rainfall evenly distributed best.

II. -The Kind of Soil Required.

A sandy loam soil, light in color and texture, is best. It must be loose in order that the pegs may easily penetrate and that the crop may be easily and appropriately cultivated; and it must be light in color in order that the pods may be clean and not stained. The fancy trade and confectioners object to stained pods, though the oil mills and feed manufacturers do not. The soil must be well drained and sweet, not sour. Sour soils cause a yellow plant which has an unhealthy appearance and bears a small crop of inferior nuts.

Fertile soils produce the largest crops and also the best quality, provided there is not an excess of nitrogen. Excess of nitrogen may to some degree be overcome by heavier applications of acid phosphate and of pot ash in soils where potash is needed.

III.-Varieties of Peanuts.

The large-podded varieties of Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina are Jumbo, Virginia Bunch and Virginia Runner. These are the varieties that dominate the confectionery trade, and they are named in order of their quality, though the Virginia Bunch is the poorest yielder of the three. These have two nuts to the pod and weigh 22 pounds to the bushel.

The Valencia is intermediate in size between the Virginia Runner and the Spanish, and the pods contain from three to four nuts, which are red. The pods cluster about the tap root. This variety weighs more per bushel than the large-pod varieties and less than the Spanish.

The Spanish has an upright growth similar to the Virginia Bunch, but is not so coarse. The two-seeded pods are densely clustered about the tap root, the nuts are light brown though there is a variety known as the White Spanish. The yield is heavy and the nuts, rich in oil, weigh 30 pounds to the bushel. This variety is usually too widely spaced in rows too far apart. Adapted to a wide range of soils.

The Tennessee Red has long slender pods with three to six nuts and, like the Spanish, produces well in clay soils.

The North Carolina, while a runner variety, produces pods similar to the Spanish but larger.

The Spanish has the widest adaptation to soil and climate and often produces heavy yields where the Jumbo and Virginia will fail. It is dependent upon lime to a less extent than other varieties, is the earliest variety, ripens more nearly at one time, is most sought by the oil mills, and consequently is the safest variety to begin with by persons unfamiliar with peanut culture and where this crop is new.

IV.-Use Only Good Seed.

The quality of the seed of few crops influences the produce so much as good peanut seed. Seed peanuts should be well cured with smooth, large, uniform pods and kernels, and should be tested before planting. Selection of seed should begin in the field before the crop is harvested.

Success with peanuts as a commercial crop depends largely on community and regional cooperation. The initial supply of seed for a community beginning to grow the very large Virginia type should be secured from the cooperative association operating over the eating peanut section, of which Suffolk and Norfolk are the markets.

V.-Preparing the Land.

Plowing the land to get it ready for peanuts need not differ from the best practices of preparing for corn. If weeds, stalks, etc., are on the land, plowing should be done far enough in advance of planting to give the stalks time to rot. Such covering should be done over with a stalk cutter or with a heavy drag before it is plowed in. It is rarely advisable to break land deeper in the fall than it has been the practice to break it. Deeper growing is best done at some other period in the rotation. This is especially advisable where the eating peanuts are grown. Fresh subsoil stains the pods.

If winter cover crops precede the peanut crop, then give additional care to the preparation made for the cover crop and apply lime before the cover crop is planted. Where a cover crop is to be plowed down for peanuts, postpone plowing it down until it has made a good start, but do not delay so long that the cover crop will have made such a growth as to interfere with the making of a good seed-bed for the peanuts. Disk the soil before plowing and harrow it immediately behind the breaking plows.

VI.-The Seedbed.

A seedbed that has been harrowed twice after breaking and then rolled and harrowed again will pay for this good treatment in a good stand and prompt germination. The cultipacker type implement produces the best seed-bed condition most quickly and at least expense.

On the sandy loam soils best adapted to peanuts, the crop is planted level, or on a dragged-down small ridge left after covering the fertilizer. On stiffer soils a very slightly raised bed is preferred; though such a bed should not be high enough to prevent shallow cultivation that keeps the soil pulverized for easy penetration of the pegs.

Never stir peanut land while it is wet.

VII.-Liming for Best Results.

When only 500 to 750 pounds of lime are used, the application is made annually, in the drill before planting. This practice is not advised except in case of great difficulty in getting lime. The lime should be applied to the previous crop in a rotation in which peanuts are included. The quantity used will vary according to the kind of lime applied and vary again as to the acidity of the soil. The lime should be put down broadcast at intervals of three, four or five years, or to fit the cycle of the rotation employed.

Burnt lime, ground limestone, burnt oyster shells, and ground oyster shells and marl are the commonly used sources of lime applied before the crop is planted. When sulphate of lime or land plaster is used, it is dusted on the vines at the rate of 200 to 600 pounds per acre when the crop is laid by. This will not take the place of
lime applied to the soil before planting. Finely ground limestone or oyster shells are cheapest, except in cases of long freight hauls, when burnt lime may be more economical.

VIII.--Fertilizing Peanuts.

Fertilizer pays good dividends on peanuts; but for best results-applications made to a previous crop and not directly to the peanuts is strongly recommended by best authorities. This practice tends toward soil building and permanency of fertility. If a rotation is followed, leguminous crops plowed down will provide the necessary nitrogen and an appreciable part of the mineral elements. With such a rotation in operation 400 pounds of acid phosphate may supply the needs of one crop.

Peanut fertilizer should analyze 8 to 10 per cent. phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. nitrogen, and 2 to 5 per cent. potash; 8-2-3 is a commonly used formula. The South Carolina Experiment station recommends 8-3-3 for the light sandy soils of that state, 8-2-3 for Coastal Plains soils reasonably supplied with organic matter, and 9-2-3 for Piedmont soils. (Extension Bulletin No. 45.)

IX.-Planting the Crop.

Planting should not begin until the ground and air become warm. After early corn has been planted is a good time to begin. The eating peanuts require about 120 to 130 days to mature and the Spanish 90 to 100 days. It is a common, and a good practice to plant the Spanish on small grain stubble.

The method of planting may be by hand for small areas, but for field culture improved planters should invariably be used. Such implements open the furrow, mark the next row, apply and mix the fertilizer, leaving a slight ridge. Then a special peanut planter follows, drawn by one horse.

The rate of planting varies from one to two pecks of the Spanish type to one to 1 1-2 pecks of the larger types. The distance for the larger running varieties is 16 inches in 36-inch rows; for the Spanish type, 6 to 12 inches in 30 to 36-inch rows. The depth ranges from one to two inches for a well prepared seedbed, and it is not advised that peanuts be planted without good preparation being made for them.

X.-Cultivating the Growing Crop.

Begin the cultivation of peanuts before they come up. Kill the weeds before they start and prevent the formation of a soil crust. As soon as the soil is dry enough after each rain, cultivate promptly. The first cultivation should be with a weeder or light drag harrow run across the rows two to four times before the plants are four inches high. Then start the riding cultivator and continue it until the plants begin to peg. Such cultivators will work one or two rows at a time and save more than half in the time required. Never cultivate deeper than two inches.

At the last working, some soil may be moved to the plants.

The practice of covering the plants with dirt when the blooms open is not only useless but injurious.