# Peanut food plot



## Pessell Creek

I'm going to try and mix things up with our summer foodplots this year. I think I'm going to add 4-5 acres of peanuts to the mix. Does anyone know when is the best time to plant them in sw Ga?


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## Atlanta Dawg

Just do a search for "Planting Peanuts In Georgia" and you will get a Plethora of information on it.  Basically it will tell you to plant late April to May, 150 day growing cycle, lots of rain, full sun, sandy soil, etc.....I planted some one time and they did great-can't say though the deer like "Ambushed" them !  But it was fun to do !


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## bruiserbuckgrower

If you have a way to dig them in the fall that would be awesome also, broad cast some oats, wheat and crimson  clover, in them then use an old 2 row digger it would almost be the perfect fall plot, especially if you also had some standing corn close by


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## jharrell

I would plant them toward the end of may. They will last longer that way. Once the pnut matures out the vines tent to go downhill some. We have a ton of pnuts in our area as you should in sw ga. They work and are high in protein.


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## Big7

Best thing ever..

Deer, Turkey and hog.

If you have something to turn them with.

If not, in your area, SOYBEANS are the bomb! 

Like p-nuts, the stalk and beans are like crack.

Ps.. p-nuts are not nuts. They are beans. 

Soybeans are a little more manageable IMO..

Protein and attractant value are about the same.

Tip:
Look around surrounding properties.

Don't plant a few acres of p-nuts or soybeans 
if the guy down the road has a few hundred acres 
planted.

Plant a "treat", something not already available nearby.

Do yer' mineral lick now.. So it will be ready when the heat starts.


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## GA DAWG

I even saw 5 dogs eating peanuts last week on our place. Beat anything. They came feeding down a row just as a deer or hog would.


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## Pessell Creek

Thanks for all the advice. we plan on planting 2 acres of peanuts in two of our 4-5 acre plots as an experiment. I'm hoping the peanuts handle the browsing pressure better than the soybeans did last year. This fall we planted quite a bit of white clover in our larger plots to help reduce some of the browsing pressure on the bean/ peanut sprouts. From what I've read, I'm hoping the peanuts will handle dry summer weather better than the beans also.


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## GA DAWG

How has the clover did in the sand? Good?


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## Scrapy

I have never yet planted peanuts for deer browse but it sounds like a good idea. Me and the deer and my garden peanuts have an understanding. LOL.  Peanuts and beans have a good array of herbicides and can be no-tilled if needed.  I also coonhunt so peanuts would be a lot better choice for me  than beans. My problem with beans as well as peas is getting them past the first trifoliate stage and the deer wipe them out. I would expect that same problem with peanuts.


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## Forest Grump

Pessell Creek said:


> Thanks for all the advice. we plan on planting 2 acres of peanuts in two of our 4-5 acre plots as an experiment. I'm hoping the peanuts handle the browsing pressure better than the soybeans did last year. This fall we planted quite a bit of white clover in our larger plots to help reduce some of the browsing pressure on the bean/ peanut sprouts. From what I've read, I'm hoping the peanuts will handle dry summer weather better than the beans also.



They won't produce nearly the tonnage of beans (particularly forage beans). Drought tolerance is similar to soybeans. (Anytime it is dry enough to wilt the plants daily, growth will be poor). Deer on my place don't browse the peanuts much early; they tend to leave them be, similar to cowpeas, until late summer heading into fall. They will be on beans from the minute they emerge until they start to yellow. Also, if you have hogs, once the peanuts peg hogs may destroy the entire field. Weeds are more of a problem in peanuts due to their short height (takes a lot longer to get canopy closure). Nutrient levels are similar to cowpeas. Inoculate them to increase N fixation. The growing point of peanuts is at ground level, so they will withstand browse damage better than peas or beans, but they still can be overwhelmed in small plots. Herbicide options are different vs. beans. In dry sandy dirt, you'll need to fertilize them well, plus have enough Ca & boron for them to do well. Late planted (May) peanuts have less disease issues, but peanuts & soybeans share many pathogens, don't plant them in rotation, or peanuts in the same spot in successive years. 

Sunn hemp is another, easier to grow, option for drought tolerance & sandy dirt. Mix it with cowpeas to get better use of it.


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## caughtinarut

Have you thought about sweet potatoes? If you have hogs I know it is not an option though.


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## cpowel10

I planted peanuts for deer and had great success this year. Let me dig around and find some pics for yall


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## Pessell Creek

I'd love to see the pics. Did you row plant or broadcast them? When did you plant them?


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## doomtrpr_z71

If you can't turn them, I'd just do soybeans. Planting date is critical, plant the first two weeks of may or don't bother. I'd plant tifguard, it's the most disease resistant cultivar. http://www.caes.uga.edu/topics/diseases/tswv/peanut/management/index.html


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## cpowel10

First let me mention that I do peanut research for a living. I mention that to hopefully qualify my post.  

I recommend planting peanuts for deer. Peanuts aren't expensive, seed peanuts are usually around $0.70 a pound.  That's cheaper than peas.  Don't plan on producing actual peanuts (the crop), deer love to eat the vines as much as iron and clay peas.  If you have a moderate deer population they will keep the plants knocked back enough they'll never peg.  Plus peanuts are susceptible to many diseases requiring several fungicide sprays throughout the season.  I say all this because you won't produce actual pods, so get in the mindset that you're just trying to produce foliage and not actual peanuts. 

Peanuts can handle heavy browsing pressure from deer and are pretty hard to kill. There are plenty of herbicides you can spray right over the top of them to control weeds/grasses as well (paraquat, Basagran, etc).  Make sure you plant in full sunlight as well.

I planted this foodplot 8/30/14 on our farm in Worth County, we've got a solid deer population with plenty of agriculture (mostly peanuts and cotton) in the immediate area.  I mowed, harrowed, broadcasted the seed peanuts and harrowed them back into the soil about 2" deep.  It rained about 1/2" the day after I planted.  The deer hammered the vines until the first frost in November, which obviously killed the plants. 

At planting




Stand Shots













exclusion cage to show how much they're using the plot




And finally, a buck that I killed eating peanuts in the plot


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## Scrapy

Great story with pictures. I saw some "ground nuts" or "ground peanut" at the Expo at Tifton 15 years ago. They were supposed to be perennial soil builder type plants ie like sericia. Anyway, did they prove to be perennial and do deer like them?


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## cpowel10

Scrapy said:


> Great story with pictures. I saw some "ground nuts" or "ground peanut" at the Expo at Tifton 15 years ago. They were supposed to be perennial soil builder type plants ie like sericia. Anyway, did they prove to be perennial and do deer like them?



Perennial peanuts?  I believe its mostly used for hay but I don't have any experience with them


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## cpowel10

Couple of vids I found on my phone. Both videos from the same stand I posted pics of earlier, one is to the left and the other is to the right of the stand.


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## Forest Grump

Scrapy said:


> Great story with pictures. I saw some "ground nuts" or "ground peanut" at the Expo at Tifton 15 years ago. They were supposed to be perennial soil builder type plants ie like sericia. Anyway, did they prove to be perennial and do deer like them?





cpowel10 said:


> Perennial peanuts?  I believe its mostly used for hay but I don't have any experience with them



Perennial peanuts will only thrive in a line South of Albany, GA. They were once thought to be disease resistant, which has not proved too true. They are very expensive to establish, needing to be planted either by live rhizomes or by seed which run 50$/lb. I have some experimental plots of them in Dooly, & am evaluating them for plantings under orchards. But, as a general rule, they stay much shorter than Ag peanuts & deer don't seem especially drawn to them. If you search the forum, we've discussed them several times (Rip18 has a good bit of experience with them too). They produce very few seed, which I hoped would be great for avoiding hog damage, but as a rule they have been disappointing. They are popular in FL as horse hay, since the protein is similar to alfalfa which does not grow well down there. They even plant them in medians, & if that doesn't create a bunch of deer-car conflicts, you gotta question how much utility it would have in a perennial food plot. 

And sericea lespedeza is a terrible weed; if you want a soil builder use Sunn Hemp, it can't go to seed in N. America & the volume rivals kudzu (plus deer eat it, which they don't do with sericea).


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## Scrapy

I don't know what sunn hemp is.  I know that hemp, cannabis whatever, is not a legume. I don't know what perennial peanuts is compared to NC 6 and Valencias. Might be a different genus for all I know. I do know my garden is on the one acre of the best drained ground on the 75 acres I got and that is still considered on the wet side of things.

I figure if anybody is going to go to the trouble of planting a patch back in the woods to get deer ate and can't raise a garden cause of deer , some thing ain't right. Landplaster is cheap, cheap.


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## Plazadweller

Pessell Creek said:


> I'm going to try and mix things up with our summer foodplots this year. I think I'm going to add 4-5 acres of peanuts to the mix. Does anyone know when is the best time to plant them in sw Ga?



I planted peanuts last year with much success.  The only thing I'll say is you absolutely have to spray them & the timing of that first post emergence burn down is very very important in staying ahead of the weeds or they'll just get choked out.


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## Plazadweller

doomtrpr_z71 said:


> If you can't turn them, I'd just do soybeans. Planting date is critical, plant the first two weeks of may or don't bother. I'd plant tifguard, it's the most disease resistant cultivar. http://www.caes.uga.edu/topics/diseases/tswv/peanut/management/index.html



Even considering not being able to turn them over I would plant peanuts over soybeans.  Soybeans & iron & clay peas don't do well at all under heavy deer pressure.


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## Ihunt

Pnuts are like crack to deer. If you have hogs, getting them germinated will be a problem without a fence.


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## Pessell Creek

When is the best time to plant them in sw ga? Thank God we don't have a hog problem yet. we do have a ton of deer browsing pressure though. We just burned 250 acres of thinned pines in hopes of producing more natural forage to offset the food plots.


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## Forest Grump

Pessell Creek said:


> When is the best time to plant them in sw ga? Thank God we don't have a hog problem yet. we do have a ton of deer browsing pressure though. We just burned 250 acres of thinned pines in hopes of producing more natural forage to offset the food plots.



The best time for YOU  to plant them is in May. Farmers try to plant as early as possible, but you want plants, not peanuts. You want to avoid early planting stress, which brings thrips, TSWV, fungal problems, etc... You want happy, healthy vines & as a bonus: seeds are cheaper because farmers have bought all they are going to buy, so what your seed supplier has he's stuck with, you might get a bargain; but if not, they are still maybe 0.75$ /lb...


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## Pessell Creek

Sounds like a great plan FG. Thanks for the advice!


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