How to Grow Peanuts in High Altitudes

Walk through your landscape looking for an ideal planting site for growing peanuts. The plants need lots of sunshine, but also a warm, well-drained, loose-textured soil. Avoid shady sites or sloping hillsides that face the north or east. A south-facing slope is ideal as it will warm up more quickly in springtime and also shed any heavy cold air at night, preventing damage to the peanut plants. A garden site out of cold or drying winds is also good.

Prepare a planting bed to sow peanuts in spring by digging it to a depth of 12 inches with a garden shovel. A sandy loam soil is best for growing peanuts, as it has good drainage and is porous, allowing the taproot and the burrowing seed pods to easily nestle into the topsoil to mature before harvest. Avoid wet or dense soils such as clay. Adding compost to loam and sandy soils increases fertility and texture.

Scatter 0-10-20 granular fertilizer across a bed at a rate of 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet in area. Incorporate the slow-release fertilizer into the top 4 inches of soil.

Sow the peanut seeds 1 to 2 inches deep in the soil after the last spring frost date in your region. Space seeds 4 to 6 inches apart in the row. Space multiple rows 24 to 36 inches apart. Peanut plants are killed by subfreezing temperatures. The seeds sprout best if the soil temperature at the 2-inch depth has reached at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Insert row cover hoops and row cover fabric over the peanut patch in cool-summer areas. The row covers help keep the soil and air warmer around the peanuts, hastening plant growth. The row cover is often referred to as "floating" since the fabric may be pulled back from the support loops during the day to bask plants in sun, but then replaced at night to keep plants warm and experiencing more tropical temperatures.

Hand-pick weeds that sprout up in the peanut patch, especially those within 10 inches of each peanut plant. A hoe may be used carefully across the rest of the soil area.

Water the peanuts, supplementing natural rainfall, to keep the soil evenly moist during the warmth of summer.

Apply gypsum to the peanut plants once the tiny yellow blossoms appear, which is about 30 to 40 days after they sprout from the soil. Gypsum is also called calcium sulfate. Scatter the gypsum in a 14-inch-wide band directly over the peanut plants at a rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Weed and water the peanuts as needed the rest of the growing season. Peanut flowers occur sporadically over four to six weeks. The pegs then burrow in the top 4 inches of soil to develop. Peanuts to not all mature at the same time, but over about eight weeks after the flower was pollinated by bees. The warmer the air and soil temperatures, the faster the development of the underground peanuts.

Dig up the entire peanut plant in late summer or early fall once the majority of each plant begins to yellow. Use a potato fork or shovel, trying not to sever peanut pods from the stems while lifting the entire plant. Air-dry the plant, with peanuts attached, for four to seven days in full sun or a warm, dry, well-ventilated area.