Tell me about Peanuts and Cotton

[bughunter99]

Hello.

I'm in the burbs of Chicago, (zone 5B-ground currently frozen with a thaw maybe this week).

I am a notorious zone pusher and this year have purchased this and this to try.
http://www.southernexposure.com/caro...8-g-p-841.html

http://www.southernexposure.com/red-...ton-p-880.html

I'm into organic, edible landscaping and do not plant things in distinct rows. Rather plants are intermingled for both aesthetics and for get benefits off one another.

With this in mind, what do I need to know about growing peanuts and cotton?

Stacy

[kurt]

Grew both as a novelty.Peanuts are like potatoes and come from the ground,they do need some room.Cotton is fun untill you have to pick out the seeds,be careful of the thorns.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by kurt

Grew both as a novelty.Peanuts are like potatoes and come from the ground,they do need some room.Cotton is fun untill you have to pick out the seeds,be careful of the thorns.

I had no idea cotton had thorns.

Looks like I need to look at this layout again.

[Dutch]

Stacy, We grew peanut on my parents farm in the 1960's. Zone 5A about 40 or 50 miles north of you. I think they were Virginian.
Dutch

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Stacy, We grew peanut on my parents farm in the 1960's. Zone 5A about 40 or 50 miles north of you. I think they were Virginian.
Dutch

Yay! I knew I wasn't crazy. Thanks Dutch.

Stacy

[Dutch]

Tracy,
We grew though peanuts in soil on a low laying flat that was created by two hills slopping together and a rock wall made from years of pulling rocks from the fields to slow the erosion of soil before the rain water ran into a ditch along the road.
We used to grow strawberries there but as more and more people moved out to country, people started to stop and help themselves to the strawberries, the plants and runners. Worse of all they left a big mess that allowed the rain to cut big gullies.
The peanuts solved the problem. We planted them in hills in the spring. They sent out runners that kept the silty soil together during the early summer rains and the nuts were underground where no one could see them.
Dutch

[Farmette]

Last year I ordered Black Peanuts from Sandhill Preservation. I germinated them and planted them in large pots, probably 16-18" in diameter. They probably didn't produce as much as they would have in the ground, but they did set pegs that drilled into the soil. I think we got about 25-30 peanuts per plant. It was more of a conversation piece for the deck.

[Darren Abbey]

I grew cotton one year in zone 4a. They were quite productive, although the warm season ended before the bolls had dried. I pulled the plants and hung them in my garage to let them fully dry out.

Making an economical go of cropping cotton here would probably require a few more steps to be worked out, but for small-scale hobby use, it is readily done.

I thought about making a small-scale cotton gin to pull out the seeds, and then see if I could spin the resulting fiber. I expect I'll take up this project again when I have sufficient gardening space.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Tracy,
We grew though peanuts in soil on a low laying flat that was created by two hills slopping together and a rock wall made from years of pulling rocks from the fields to slow the erosion of soil before the rain water ran into a ditch along the road.
We used to grow strawberries there but as more and more people moved out to country, people started to stop and help themselves to the strawberries, the plants and runners. Worse of all they left a big mess that allowed the rain to cut big gullies.
The peanuts solved the problem. We planted them in hills in the spring. They sent out runners that kept the silty soil together during the early summer rains and the nuts were underground where no one could see them.
Dutch

I can't believe that people were just helping themselves to your berries. That is a lot of nerve. Brilliant solution though!

Stacy

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

I grew cotton one year in zone 4a. They were quite productive, although the warm season ended before the bolls had dried. I pulled the plants and hung them in my garage to let them fully dry out.

Making an economical go of cropping cotton here would probably require a few more steps to be worked out, but for small-scale hobby use, it is readily done.

I thought about making a small-scale cotton gin to pull out the seeds, and then see if I could spin the resulting fiber. I expect I'll take up this project again when I have sufficient gardening space.

My attempt will be purely hobby in nature. I'm excited that your season was long enough to get the bolls. I've been wondering if season length was going to be my undoing. I've started them inside to try and get a jump on things while mother nature decides if she is every going to give us a spring.

Stacy

[Darren Abbey]

I direct-seeded in the garden at about the same time as tomatoes went in. With a longer season and an early start, you should do just fine (assuming you've got plenty of sun).

The seed I had was from a commercial variety that only grew to a couple feet tall. I recall picking up from a ditch somewhere on a walk out in cotton country while visiting family. The short height probably helped the plant get through its life cycle in the time it had.