Christmas comes but once a year. The same applies to awards, of course: for example, our sister company LUBERA quite surprisingly won the award for the best innovation in the Bedding & Balcony Plant category at the last IPM, the world's leading trade fair in horticulture and thus also for plants in Essen, Germany.
Peanuts – A rosy future
Picture: Award ceremony at the IPM 2020, the prize was received by Markus Kobelt and Rupert Mayer.
The expression “just peanuts” – usually meant somewhat disparagingly – stands for small things, for unimportant things. And it is not unusual for those who call something “peanuts” to try to hide something very important. In the case of our sister company both is true: the IPM award for the best innovation in the Bedding and Balcony Plant category was won with an inconspicuous, small plant, namely the peanut variety 'Justmore'®. And at the same time, Lubera is convinced that this plant has a great future ahead of it in our latitudes as well.
Picture: The joint team of Lubera and Lubera Edibles is happy about the novelty award
Markus Kobelt, the Managing Director at Lubera, puts the peanut plants in a broader context: 'Climate change is not coming, it's already here; 1.5°C more is not peanuts, not insignificant, but fundamentally changes the living conditions for plants. This is why we came up with the idea of testing whether we could grow peanuts here in Central Europe, i.e. in the German-speaking and neighbouring countries and also in the UK. According to Markus Kobelt, the limiting factor besides the warmth of spring was very quickly the wetness in summer and autumn, i.e. the soil moisture during the development and ripening period of the peanut pods and the peanuts themselves. Local breeds from South America, which come from wetter and cooler regions, were tested and selected against standard varieties at the Buchs site (Canton St. Gallen/CH). In our own trials as well as in preliminary trials in England, it quickly became clear that the local breeds are clearly superior to the varieties known from the southern states of the United States. They can simply withstand much more moisture in autumn; the leaves stay green longer, the plants ripen longer and do not have the tendency to let the freshly developed nuts germinate again immediately after the leaves have died in autumn.
Picture: The award winning Peanut variety (Not) Just Peanuts® Justpink®
Colourful peanuts
Thanks to the tests and the selection work of our sister company Lubera, we have been able to create a range of five varieties that are not only specifically suited to our climate, but also show a surprising diversity. Besides the variety Justpink®, which won the IPM innovation award in Essen, there is the giant peanut Justmore®, which hides 3-4 nuts in its long pods, the almost black peanut Justblack®, the ivory-coloured peanut Justwhite® and last but not least the two-coloured striped peanut Justbehappy®. Justmore® and Justblack®, which retain their green foliage longest in the autumn, are particularly recommended for extremely humid and also climatically disadvantaged locations. And of course the Lubera peanuts can be easily planted in pots with a volume of at least 5 L, in balcony boxes, but also in the garden on slightly mounded up beds.
Picture: the colourful Peanut variety (Not) Just Peanuts® JustBehappy®
Peanut young plants
Due to the still limited quantities, the peanut assortment mentioned above will be offered exclusively in the shop at lubera.co.uk/ lubera.com this year. Peanut young plants for pot plant production will be available from March 2021 at the earliest. If we have aroused your interest in our peanut variety, then it is already worthwhile for you to inform us about your desired quantities.
From the production side, peanuts are a rather short crop. Potted in a 1 L pot at a temperature of 16 - 18°C, the peanut plants only need about six weeks before they are ready for sale. This means the following: if the planned sales date is mid-May, it is sufficient to pot the young plants at the end of March/beginning of April.
