- Author: Jan Rhoades
This season, we decided to grow peanuts in the Edible Plants Plot at the Community Garden Demonstration Garden. Why not? They are as pretty as any pea plant and just as easy to grow. I ordered peanut seeds from the Urban Gardener website. They were inexpensive and offered a few different kinds — so I chose 'Jumbo Virginia' peanuts. The catalog described them as productive for home gardens.
I ordered a quarter of a pound — it doesn't take a lot of seeds to grow these plants. They want plenty of room and each plant will yield lots of peanuts. I will be starting these indoors in March since they must be planted after all danger of frost (in Bishop that usually means May), and it will take 4 months of growing to harvest our peanuts.
There are four main types of peanut plants grown in the United States: runner peanuts, Virginia peanuts, Spanish peanuts, and Valencia peanuts. The most commonly grown type of peanut plants are runner peanuts, which make up about 80% grown. Virginia peanuts account for 15%. Runner peanuts are primarily grown in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, with Georgia producing 40% of the U.S. peanut crop. Runner peanuts are most commonly used in the production of peanut butter. Virginia peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are primarily grown in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They produce the largest nuts and are most often used as snacking peanuts. Virginia peanuts have also become very popular in gourmet, all-natural peanut butters. Spanish peanuts (Arachis fastigata) are primarily grown in Texas and Oklahoma. These peanuts are used in candies or sold as salted, shelled peanuts for snacking and are also used in the production of peanut butter. Valencia peanuts (Arachis fastigata) are mostly produced in New Mexico. They are known as the sweetest tasting peanuts and are, therefore, very popular for all natural and homemade peanut butters. Valencia peanuts also make delicious boiled peanuts.
According to some sources, it's not really necessary to get peanut seeds from a seed company, though quite a few offer them. Word (on the internet) has it that peanuts from the grocery store will work just fine — with a few caveats: the peanuts need to be in the shell and raw — not boiled in salt water or roasted, as some are. You could try the feed store or a pet store since some birds — think parrots — like to eat peanuts, and generally the ones for pet birds are raw and in the shell. If you want to be sure of the variety, you should plan to order them, however.
Peanuts can be planted directly as well as started inside. They need average soil — no need for fancy stuff since they are really a legume, not a nut, and they actually put nitrogen into the soil. That's another bonus besides the peanut butter. They do need soil that is loose and deep, since the peanuts, like potatoes, grow underground. And, as I mentioned, they need space — so, no crowding. An addition of calcium (bonemeal works) is recommended, too. Peanuts are tropical natives of South America — so, they need lots of sunlight (at least 8 hours a day) and moisture, though not too much. The common wisdom is 1” of water a week — though in this climate, more might be needed.
You can plant them by just pushing the shell into the soil or you can remove the shell and put the peanut in the soil. Be careful not to remove the red seed coat if you take them out of the shell. Push them in about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep. The seeds will germinate into a lovely green plant with pretty yellow flowers. Sow seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost or directly outdoors when soil has warmed to 60 to 70 degrees F. Plant seeds 4 to 6 inches apart and leave 3 feet between the rows. Keep the soil moist to ensure germination. Seeds will germinate in 10 to 15 days. Thin the seedlings when they are about 2 inches tall, to a spacing of 8 to 12 inches. Plant indoor starts 8 to 12 inches apart. As the plants grow to about a foot tall, "hill" them by heaping additional soil around the base of the stem, along with light mulch for weed control.
Peanuts grow in a very unusual way, so watching them form is almost as much of a treat as getting to eat the peanuts themselves. About six to eight weeks after germination, bushy, 1- to 2-foot-tall plants produce yellow flowers that are self-pollinating. When the flower petals fall, the tip of the flower stalk begins to elongate until it reaches the ground, but it doesn't stop there. “Pegging down” is the term that describes how this stalk continues to grow into the ground until it reaches a depth of 1 to 2 inches (2.5-5 cm.). At the end of each peg (actually called peduncles) is where the seed pods begin to form, encasing the seeds, or peanuts. Since peanuts bloom over a period of several weeks (up to three months), the pods mature at various intervals. Each pod yields two to three peanuts. Again, It's important to hill up and mulch around each plant when they begin to flower so that the peduncles have good deep soil to dive into. Be sure to keep the plants moist at this stage.
Most peanuts are ready to harvest anywhere from 120-150 days after planting, usually in late summer/early fall when the foliage turns yellow. You should also pull a couple of pods from the ground and inspect them carefully. Ready-to-harvest pods have the typical veined surface, the seed coats are colored, and most of the pods have a darkened inside surface. When you harvest the peanuts, the soil must be dry, so stop watering about two weeks before you harvest. Loosen the soil around plants with a garden fork and lift them by grasping at the base and pulling. Shake the dirt from the roots and pods and let the plants dry in the sun for a week (with the pods on top). Remove the pods from plants and spread them on newspaper in a cool, dry place (such as a garage) for several weeks. Store the peanuts in a mesh bag in a cool, dry place.
Peanuts, like any other garden plant, can be affected by a wide range of pests and diseases, especially hungry squirrels, mice, and chipmunks. Leaf-feeding insects may include army worms and caterpillars. Common diseases are leaf spot, rust, blight, and viral diseases. To help identify what is harming the plants, seek assistance from your local Master Gardeners. (immg@ucanr.edu)
In researching and writing this article, I am reminded of George Washington Carver, a prominent American scientist and inventor in the early 1900s. He also was a champion of crop rotation and agricultural education. Born into slavery, today he is an icon of American ingenuity and the transformative potential of education.
Carver was determined to use his knowledge to help poor farmers of the rural South. He began by introducing the idea of crop rotation. Carver settled on peanuts because it was a simple crop to grow and had excellent nitrogen fixing properties to improve soil depleted by growing cotton. He took his lessons to former slaves turned sharecroppers by inventing the Jessup Wagon, a horse-drawn classroom and laboratory for demonstrating soil chemistry. Farmers were ecstatic with the large cotton crops resulting from the cotton/peanut rotation, but were less enthusiastic about the huge surplus of peanuts that built up and began to rot in local storehouses.
In response, Carver developed approximately 300 products made from peanuts; these included: flour, paste, insulation, paper, wall board, wood stains, soap, shaving cream and skin lotion. He also experimented with medicines made from peanuts, which included antiseptics, laxatives and a treatment for goiter. Contrary to popular belief, while Carver developed a version of peanut butter, he did not invent it. The Incas developed a paste made out of ground peanuts as far back as 950 B.C. In the United States, according to the National Peanut Board, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of cereal fame, invented a version of peanut butter in 1895.
So, have a gardening adventure…grow your own peanut butter. Better yet — make chili lime roasted peanuts to eat while you watch a movie. George Washington Carver once said, ”Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable."
For more information about peanuts, see these resources.
- What Is A Virginia Peanut: Information On Planting Virginia Peanuts https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/peanuts/planting-virginia-peanuts.htm
- Plant Your Own Peanuts – How To Grow Peanuts https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/peanuts/growing-peanuts.htm
- Author: Dustin Blakey
Earlier this week a friend posted on Twitter about temperatures at their place expected to go from 68°F one day to 28°F the next. Here in the Eastern Sierra we do that just about every day! Wide temperature swings can cause environmental injury to trees.
This time of year sees a lot of pleasant daytime temperatures, but it still gets very cold at night. We sometimes see injury on fruit trees, especially on the southwest side, during the transition from winter to spring. The warm temperatures in the day can move parts of the plant out of dormancy which may then freeze on a cold night. In Owens Valley, I have seen this most commonly on young stone fruit trees.
Over the past few years here, almost everyone whose trees I have helped train have some sort of environmental injury. While there's not much we can do about our climate, an easy way to reduce issues with sunburn and southwest injury in winter is to apply whitewash to sensitive areas.
A good recipe for tree whitewash is 1 part INTERIOR white latex paint to 1 part water. Parts that get exposed to the sun are good places to whitewash. You don't need to get the entire tree. Once the bark gets thicker, you may not need this any more.
If you already have fruit trees in your yard, go look at them now. You should be able to tell whether your home orchard would benefit from whitewashing.
For questions about environmental injuries or pests, contact our Master Gardener helpline at immg@ucanr.edu or visit our Facebook page.
More information on whitewashing can be found here.
- Author: Harold McDonald
I recently unearthed a bouquet of blue statice that I had hung to dry in the pantry, and it now brightens my bathroom, along with some ‘Moonshine' yarrow and lavender harvested early last summer.
Though I do have some star performers in my desert garden, I'm afraid nothing will ever quite compare to the armloads of easily-grown flowers I could collect nearly any day in Santa Cruz. When I saw those statice, it occurred to me that I could extend my season of color by planting even more flowers for drying. I did a little research and came across this amazing site that inspired me to expand my palette of dried flowers.
Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) is a super-tough little annual from South America that blooms in late summer. It is so tolerant of high temperatures that there used to be a notion that it was planted at the gates of Hades. Now that's hot! I grew it 20 years ago when I lived in west Bishop, and I remember it as a welcome—if not too exciting—addition to the flower bed. But seedsmen and plant breeders have been paying attention to this little guy, and you can now find it in oranges and reds, in addition to the white, pink and purple I remember. The colors that make globe amaranth so striking actually come from stiff, papery, leaf-like structures called bracts—the same part that makes poinsettias and bougainvilleas so attractive)—the true flowers are so tiny that they are nearly hidden within the flower head.
As I alluded to above, statice (Limonium sinuatum) has become a staple in my garden over the years. With statice, it's the flower sepals (collectively known as the calyx) that provides the color—the white flower petals fall away. Statice is super-easy to grow from seed, and they now come in so many more colors than the blue I have always grown.
And there are so many other possibilities to explore!
Many of us have grown the common annual bachelor's button (Centaurea cyanus). You may also know it as cornflower, so named because it was often found as a weed in fields of corn and other grains. Another familiar plant is the aptly-named strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum). I'll bet you can guess what plant part provides this Australian import with its color! The big news with so many of these dried flowers is the new hues plant breeders have brought us.
Less familiar to me are the celosias (Celosia angentea cristata), which come not only in different colors, but in three different flower types: plumed, cockscomb and wheat! Sunballs (Crasspedia globosa), sea holly (Eryngium planum)and globe thistle (Echinops ritro) are three more to check out.
And you don't have to stop at flowers. Many grasses (bunny tails are nice) and members of the onion family are great in dried bouquets. In my own garden I discovered that the dried stalks of garlic chives are beautiful in the autumn garden, especially mixed with ornamental grasses and late bloomers like goldenrod. The problem, of course, is that by the time they are dry, they have spread their seeds far and wide!
As easy as most of these plants are to grow, drying the flowers is even simpler. Cut them when they first open, bundle them with string and hang upside down to dry. Florists sometimes use drying agents like silica gel, but my favorite method comes from a grower who tosses the flowers in the trunk of his car, parks it in the sun, and says they are perfect after 24 hours!
For more information on flowers to dry:
Select flower names in the articles to see photographs and more detailed descriptions.
- 30 of the best flowers for drying
- Grow everlastings for dried flowers
- Gomphrena—an antidote for the late summer blahs
*Brazilian verbena has become invasive in some warm-winter areas of the country, but our temperature extremes seem to prevent that here.
- Author: Alison Collin
When we first moved to the Owens Valley 12 years ago we inherited a well-stocked garden, one feature of which was a border of raspberries. Sadly, I forgot to ask the previous homeowner which variety they were. I was amazed to think that one could grow these in a place which has such hot summers, since I had always been taught that raspberries grow in much more equable climates such as the Pacific Northwest.
However, these plants did not let me down and produced a crop on the one-year-old stems (floricanes) in late May/early June followed by a smaller crop in fall on the current season's growth (primocanes) in October. They are growing in front of an east-facing 6' high wooden fence so they get morning and early afternoon sun. They are drip irrigated with two parallel lines about 16 inches apart with in-line emitters every 12 inches.
The canes are sturdy, self-supporting, slightly spiny, 3'-4' high and do not need to be staked. The berries are not particularly large but are firm and hold up well in the freezer. The flavor is good but not exceptional.
However, in recent years the fall crop has failed. Although flowers appear in September and are worked enthusiastically by bees the young berries have been destroyed by an early frost (although after the damage was done the weather warmed up considerably for several days afterwards).
Then I made my big mistake! I came across a variety called 'Joan J' in a catalog and it was described as the earliest of the fall fruiting varieties. That would surely miss the frost and furthermore the stems are spineless, berries large and with very good flavor. Just what I needed – or so I thought.
I cleared some of my old canes and replaced as much of the soil as I could and planted in the spring. They grew extremely vigorously and before long I was hammering in stakes and stringing wires in order to keep up with them, but even so some of the canes did not get tied in and the lush green growth soon flopped over.
I was excited to see the first flowers appearing in late June—huge panicles of blooms on the tips of the new stems. And that was when the problem began! I had lost a tree that had provided some shade to the canes so the plants were getting too much sun right in the middle of summer when our temperatures were soaring well into the 100°F range. As a result the berries were either drying into a pippy mess or cooking in the hot sun which attracted a goodly number of green stink bugs. I had very few berries that were suitable for harvest but they did have a strong and wonderful flavor. Many of the tips had flopped over the supporting wire so that the stems were bent double and of course this resulted in the berries dying.
Another problem was that these plants did not stay put neatly in the row where they were planted and have spread themselves into adjoining crops of strawberries and rhubarb.
Rethinking the Problem
After a few disappointing seasons my choices appear to be:
- To abandon this variety altogether and choose a variety that will ripen in September
- To try and rig up some sort of shade cloth which will not take off in the wind
- Replant them in a more open area where perhaps they would get less reflected heat from the fence, but I would have to sacrifice some other crop to do that
- Concentrate on growing floricane fruiting varieties which give a single good crop in June before one gets busy dealing with tree fruits
Any suggestions that I haven't thought of? Feel free to leave your comments below.
To learn more about raising raspberries in our area see this link: https://ucanr.edu/sites/newinyomonomg/Eastern_Sierra_Gardening/Fruits/Raspberries/
/h3>- Author: Alison Collin
Here they come! Gardening catalogs are appearing in our mailboxes fast, so rather than immediately tossing them into the recycling, why not take the time to open them and learn from them by studying the wealth of information that many of them contain?
Reading the information carefully may well prevent wasting time, money, and effort in attempting to grow plants that are destined to failure because an inappropriate choice has been made. There is little point in planting 200 Walla Walla onions because you have seen them in the local supermarket and it is a name that you recognize, when in fact they often do not bulb well at our latitude (37.36° in Bishop), nor do they store well.
Falling in love with the description of a tomato variety that has been specially bred for cool climates may give you a very poor yield in the desert. If your tomatoes have been afflicted by blights, viruses or any other identifiable diseases you may be able to find varieties that are resistant to these clearly labeled. Likewise, if root knot nematodes have got a hold in your soil, there are various vegetables that are resistant to that problem.
Good seed and plant catalogs contain an almost encyclopedic amount of knowledge regarding their offerings, while other, less than helpful ones with glowing descriptions of enormous vegetables or spectacular flowers contain scant amounts of horticultural information about even the basic growing requirements.
Of course there is a long tradition of seed catalogs describing plants' characteristics with particularly optimistic language; however, most reputable seed companies want you to succeed with their plants, so they give as much detail as space allows on how to provide the best possible conditions for each plant.
The best catalogs will also mention any problems with a variety, such as being susceptible to rotting or not being reliably hardy, or even that they have low yields. Most catalogs use abbreviations and the key to these will be explained somewhere in the text, but a useful overview can be found at: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2086/2014/05/howtoreadseedcatalog1.pdf
Perusing the “Onion” section of one of my current catalogs, I learn the following about Allium cepa:
- Type and pH of the soil, sun exposure needs, whether to direct seed or start indoors, what time of year to transplant, how far apart to space them and how deeply to plant.
- Water requirements both during growing and bulbing.
- Days to maturity for both direct sown and transplanted specimens.
- Diseases associated with them.
- How to store and how long they will store in ideal conditions
- The importance of daylight length in growing different types of onions.
- Then there is a key to various abbreviations used for disease susceptibility eg HR= highly resistant and then the diseases (BO for Botrytis), (DM for Downy Mildew) etc.
- There is a graph showing how long germination will take at different soil temperatures.
- There is then a photograph of all the onions on offer side by side for comparison
- The onions are categorized by daylight length – Long day (not suitable for southern gardens), short day or, Intermediate day, and then further broken down into color – white, red, or yellow.
- Each variety is then described separately as to the latitude at which they will grow, days to maturity, size, yield, flavor and pungency, storage capability and disease resistance, etc.
All other vegetables are treated similarly - from beans to watermelons, as well as herbs, cover crops and cut flowers!
Some of us enjoy the challenge of experimenting - pushing the boundaries of growing, or trying plants new to the area and with the information provided we can go into these projects with our eyes open, knowing what problems are likely to occur.
Of course we will still get carried away by the photograph of some magnificent specimen in a catalog and find that we cannot resist trying it - surely curiosity is one of the most important qualities of a gardener!