How to Grow Peanut In Containers
Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is an annual plant coming from the Fabaceae family, a vegetable. It is a hardy plant that requires very little attention. Peanut, which is additionally called groundnut contains many trace elements like copper, zinc, manganese and vitamin B and is extremely nutritious.
Planting Peanuts in containers
Fill the seed plate or container with gardening soil or potting mix. Sow seeds 3 cm deep. Cover them up with a thin layer of soil. the peanut seeds you acquire for sowing must stay in their shell and you have to open them just before planting.
For legitimate germination and greatest yield, temperature must be over 70 F/21 ° C (80 F is ideal). Following up to 14 days, the seeds will develop. Give the seedlings a chance to grow a bit and replant them in individual pots.
In case you’re growing peanuts in a cooler zone you have to know that peanuts require no less than 100 frost-free days to develop. You’ll have to start the seeds inside, no less than 30 days before the last frost date in the spring.
Peanut grows its unit from 5 to 10 cm under the ground. So select pot no less than 30 cm deep and 40 – 50 cm wide (1 feet deep and 1 – 2 feet wide). Ensure the pots have adequate drainage openings. You can grow 2 – 3 plants in one pot.
How to care for peanuts in containers
Location – Peanut is a tropical plant, so it wants to grow in somewhat humid and warm conditions. Put the containers in the sunniest spot, however less breezy of your terrace or porch. The plant can not survive in temperatures under 32 F (0 ° C). It blossoms and gives fruit at a temperature between 70 – 95 F (20 to 35 ° C).
Soil – For growing peanuts in containers fertile and light soil is required, which is pH neutral and has good drainage. It is best to purchase an organic potting mix or make your own.
Watering – You want to keep the soil somewhat soggy. Amid early development and blossoming period, increase watering. The plant endures short dry periods also.
Fertilizing – At first it won’t require any sort of preparation, yet when you see the main yellow blossoms shaping, it is then valuable to help the plant with the organic fertilizer that is rich in phosphorus and potassium as peanuts are vegetables and frame their own particular nitrogen you don’t have to treat them with extra nitrogen manure.
The most common diseases are molds, fungi are leaf spots. As for the pests, it is attacked by aphids, potato leafhopper and spider mites.
The base of the peanut plant has to be secured with soil for good production. Once the plant achieves 10 inches of tallness earthen up the soil around the base in order to support the improvement of the pods.
Peanut is ready to reap when the leaves start to blur and end up plainly yellow. Water the soil just before you harvest, to make the operation much easier. From seed sowing to collect, peanut plant usually takes up to 90 – 150 days.
