Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Great Peanut Harvest and Artichoke Fail

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:

Unknown said...

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?

Kat said...

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!

Jennifer Sartell said...

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! :)

Jennifer Sartell said...

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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