We grew peanuts this year... in Michigan. I didn't know that was possible until this past spring when I found a started pot of peanuts for sale at a local nursery. I scooped it up as an experiment.
The peanut plant grew, but was overshadowed by an artichoke plant that I also grew as an experiment.
The artichoke, Green Globe (to the right) which is supposed to be suitable for our northern growing season, produced beautiful, large, silver-green leaves, but sadly no artichokes.
Technically the peanuts grew, and produced peanuts, but I don't think we'll be making peanut butter anytime soon. Here is the bounty of our harvest. 2.5 measly peanuts.
Peanuts grow underground and are harvested similar to potatoes. I kept digging and digging to see if I was missing something.
While I'm chalking both up as a FAIL, I'm intrigued by the peanut and artichoke experiment and plan on doing a little research and trying both again next year. If any of you seasoned artichoke and peanut growers have any suggestions I'll take em!
4 comments:
Cool. I didn't know peanuts could be grown in Michigan. Are you planning to start them indoors to give them ma bit more time to grow?
I am by no means seasoned, but I seem to remember that artichokes take several years before they produce fruit. We tried an artichoke experiment ourselves, and the plant veritably overshadowed 1/3 of our small garden. Unfortunately, a one week vacation without being watered in the the southern California heat and drought was enough to do it in before we could see an outcome. Good luck!
Linda, I think the real difference next year is that I'm going to give them more room. I also got some tips from a few readers since posting this about creating a mound or cave to plant them in. Gonna do some research, but starting them indoors might help as well. Thank you! :)
Kat. oh! Ok, maybe that's what's going on. Yeah, our plant was HUGE and shadowed out a lot of things too. Gonna do some research. ;)
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