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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-248
Peanut
Arachis hypogaea
Peanut delivers three yields off one bed: a protein-and-oil seed crop, nitrogen it fixes for whatever follows it in rotation, and a livestock hay from the same planting that in trials matched alfalfa for lactating dairy cows. The whole plant is edible in more than the obvious way - raw or roasted seed, pressed cooking oil, and even the young pods and leaves as a vegetable most growers never touch. Its one real requirement is loose ground: the flower pegs have to push into the soil and the pod has to swell underground, so heavy clay that sets hard costs pods, while a raised bed of sand and compost lets it do what it does everywhere else. The one hazard to manage on both yields is mould - damaged seed and haulm cut after heavy rain can carry a toxin dangerous enough to kill livestock, so the hay has to be cut and dried fast or not fed at all.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 4.3–8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 9–18 in
- Mature spread
- 9–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 6–9 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Bilberry
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Medicago lupulina
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Ajuga reptans
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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