Modern gardeners, both amateurs and professionals, are not afraid to experiment with the cultivation of exotic plants in their area. What can you not see on them! Especially topical publications are full of such information, where summer residents boast of a harvest of exotic plants. But if most of the plants are planted for fun, then some guests from warm countries can be of considerable benefit.
Take peanuts, for example. This nutritious nut has been familiar to us since childhood, when it was such a rare overseas guest. Now everything has changed, thanks to international trade, peanuts can be on our table much more often. They contain a lot of antioxidants, and good news for gourmets, there are even more of them in fried nuts.
Today it is not a problem to buy it, but it will also not be difficult to feast on these nutritious nuts, grown on your own.
A little about peanuts
The homeland of this delicacy is South America. The plant is annual, blooms for only one day. And therefore, its small yellow flowers do not always have time to pollinate. Despite this, peanuts can be very easily grown in your country house, the main thing is to follow a few fairly simple rules:
Since the plant is very thermophilic, set aside the sunniest part of your garden for growing, where there will be good moisture circulation. The soil can be either black earth or with an average clay content. Monitor the soil temperature, sow only when the temperature reaches 12 degrees Celsius.
Regarding the sowing scheme: observe the distance between the rows in the region of 70 centimeters, but between the seeds about 20 centimeters, the planting depth should not exceed 10 centimeters. If you are worried that a lot of planting material will go away, then calm down in advance on 10 square meters, you need about 100 grams of seeds.
Caring for peanuts is easy. Do not water before germination, so that there is no excess moisture. Almost immediately after the shoots appear, they will bloom with delicate yellow small flowers. At this stage, you need to connect, you need to carry out the hilling procedure, the same as with cabbage or potatoes. Soon the bush will again appear on the surface of the earth, repeat the hilling. The quality of the crop will depend on the frequency of these procedures, so the more often the better. If the summer is already very dry, you can water the peanuts a little, but you need to be very moderate.
Peanuts ripen in early October. When there are about 4 weeks left before harvest, stop watering the plants altogether. When digging, leave the roots to dry. After that, you can easily collect the fruits and dry them at room temperature.
The process is not at all complicated, even a novice summer resident can do it. After all, growing yourself is always more pleasant. Alternatively, you can buy seeds of various peanuts. Some varieties, especially early selection, are much more useful than what is now grown on an industrial scale. After all, in pursuit of large yields, farmers ignore varieties with lower yields, but with a high content of useful components.
