Gadenin日本語Get the appWhy peanuts are hilled at all
Hilling a peanut is not the same job as hilling a potato. A potato is hilled to bury stolons and keep tubers out of the light. A peanut is hilled to raise soft, crumbly soil up around the base of the plant so that the pegs coming down from the lowest flowers have a short, easy journey into ground they can actually penetrate. The lowest flowers are only an inch or two above the soil surface and their pegs are the ones that produce the best-filled pods, so making that surface generous and soft is directly worth yield.
There is a second benefit. Drawing loose soil up around the crown at that moment buries the small weeds growing right against the stems, which are precisely the weeds you will be unable to remove later once pegging has started. One well-timed hilling replaces a whole season of risky hand weeding in the zone where hand weeding does the most damage.
A plant that is never hilled still produces a crop, but the pods cluster in a narrower band and a larger share of the later pegs fail to reach soil before the season ends.
Do it once, just before the flowers open
The window is narrow and it closes for good. Hill when the plants are about a foot (30 cm) across and beginning to show flower buds in the leaf axils, which is usually five to six weeks after emergence. Before that the plants are too small and you bury the growing point; after the first pegs are down, dragging soil around the plant snaps them off, and every snapped peg is a pod that will not exist.
One hilling is enough. If you find yourself wanting to hill a second time because the soil has washed flat, add soil by hand instead, sifting it around the plant from above rather than drawing it in with a hoe. Sifted soil placed on top does not disturb what is already growing below; a hoe run along the row does.
- Weed the row thoroughly first This is the last chance to hoe. Clear every weed within a foot (30 cm) of the plants before you move any soil, because you will not be able to touch them again.
- Loosen the soil between rows Run a fork or hoe shallowly through the alleys to break clods. You want the material you are about to move to be crumbly, not lumpy.
- Draw soil up to the lowest leaves Pull two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) of loose soil in against the crown from both sides, forming a low, broad, rounded mound about eighteen inches (45 cm) across.
- Spread the branches outward, do not bury them Ease the side branches out over the mound so the leaf axils sit above the fresh soil. Buried foliage rots and invites stem disease.
- Level the top and leave it alone Break any lumps on the mound with your fingers so the surface is fine and open. From this point the mound is a nursery, not a path.
What the mound should be made of
The material matters as much as the shape. A peg pushes with very little force, so the mound must be fine-textured and free of clods, stones and lumps of undecayed matter. On sandy ground the soil you pull from the alleys is already ideal. On heavier ground, mix coarse sand or sifted finished compost into what you draw up, or bring in a bucket of sandy soil per plant and place it by hand; a mound of clay clods is worse than no mound at all because it caps the very zone the pegs need.
Keep the mound low and wide rather than tall and steep. A steep mound sheds water away from the crown and washes flat in the first heavy rain, leaving the pegging zone eroded and compacted. Broad and shallow holds its shape, keeps moisture and gives the spreading branches a wider band of soft ground to drop pegs into.
| Material | Use on the mound? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Sandy loam from the alley | Yes, first choice | Fine, open and easy for a peg to enter |
| Coarse sand mixed in | Yes, on heavy ground | Keeps the surface from capping after rain |
| Sifted finished compost | Yes, in a thin layer | Soft and moisture-holding without blocking pegs |
| Straw or bark mulch | No | Pegs cannot push through matted material |
| Clay clods or stony subsoil | No | Caps the pegging zone and stops pods forming |
| Fresh manure | No | Too much nitrogen, and it encourages pod rots |
After hilling: protect the mound from your own feet
The mound you have just built is where the crop will grow, and the fastest way to lose it is to walk on it. Set a permanent path before hilling and stay in it. If the bed is wide, lay a plank across the alleys to spread your weight when you need to reach the middle, and lift the plank away rather than leaving it in place over the pegging zone. Kneeling in the row is worse than standing; it concentrates weight exactly where the pods are.
Watch the mound after heavy rain. If it has washed into the alley, replace the soil by hand from above, gently, and only if pegs are not yet visible. Once you can see the pale, pointed peg tips heading into the soil, the correct action for the rest of the season is to do nothing to the surface at all except water. Note in your records the date you hilled and how the mound held up, because on heavy soil the answer usually tells you to add more sand next season.