Peanut · Manhattan, New York, United States
When to plant peanuts in Manhattan
Main outdoor window
29 Apr - 20 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
15 April
In Manhattan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
27 Aug - 26 Sep
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Manhattan
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
18 Mar - 8 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
29 Apr - 20 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
29 Apr - 20 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
27 Aug - 26 Sep
Peanuts through the year
Against the frost risk in Manhattan
Why these dates
Sow direct two weeks after the last frost once the soil is genuinely warm, or start indoors and plant out - peanuts resent root disturbance, so use deep pots. Once the flowers fade, the stalks bend down and push into the soil; anything that stops them reaching loose ground stops the crop.
Frost-tender at both ends of the season. The plant is killed at 0C, and because the pods develop underground over a long period, an early autumn frost catches a crop that is not yet finished.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Peanuts are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Manhattan.
The median frost-free season here is 203 days, against 120 to 150 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Manhattan
Other nuts to time
Growing peanuts in Manhattan
When should I plant peanuts in Manhattan?
Aim for 29 Apr - 20 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 8-29 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will peanuts be ready to harvest in Manhattan?
Expect to start picking around 27 Aug - 26 Sep, based on 120 to 150 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will peanuts tolerate?
Frost-tender at both ends of the season. The plant is killed at 0C, and because the pods develop underground over a long period, an early autumn frost catches a crop that is not yet finished.