Peanut variety for short season?

    Probably 25 years ago, I remember growing a few peanut plants up in
north central Ohio.  I'm down barely into zone 6 now, and just
remembered that I promised my son we could grow peanuts this year!

   I didn't get much of a harvest a quarter century ago, because the
season is kind of short, and we didn't get them planted early enough.

   Realistically, I should order in the next day or so, and get them
planted in the first week of May to ensure that we get a decent harvest.

   I think we would mostly use them for salted boiling, or perhaps some
peanut butter.

   Can anyone recommend an early variety for short season growing?  Thanks!

 


    As a general rule of thumb, peanuts may be planted as soon as overnight
lows are above freezing. This site suggests the "Virginia" types as short-season
goobers at 100-120 days:
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/pub__8656321.htm
I guess if they can grow'em in Utah, you ought to do all right in OH.
    I'm hardly in a short-season area (zone 9+) but, when I grow peanuts, I
grow "Virginia jumbos", a variety that is easy to get because it's the variety
most commonly sold in bags as raw dried peanuts in supermarket produce
departments U.S.A.-wide.
    Most people err in believing they must wait until fall or first frost to
harvest peanuts. By that time, the peas are too mature (for my taste, at least)
and are beginning to lose their sweetness and beginning to get "starchy" the way
other legumes do, the shells have begun to toughen; they are past their prime
for boiling but are fine for peanut butter. Two or three weeks after the peanuts
peg, begin testing for maturity by using your fingers to isolate and pick likely
candidates. They don't object to being unearthed briefly provided they're not
allowed to dry and are re-buried promptly. Peanuts are at their best when the
skins is just turning from white to pink and the hull has just lost its soft
fleshiness. Peanuts are best boiled when "green" or freshly dug, not dried. I
never buy boiled peanuts for the simple reason that they are always made from
dried peanuts and the peas will turn to mush long before the hulls get tender,
if they ever do.