The peanut is a hot weather crop. They need warm soil to germinate. Given that, they germinate as easily as lima beans. They are grown primarily below the Mason Dixon line. Above that only special short season cultivars of the Spanish type peanut are practical. Zone 5, you will really have to work at growing peanuts.
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I do have the early spanish; and I have gotten them to produce. I just need tips to keep varmits from eating the seeds before they germinate.

Could I pre-sprout the seeds to keep them from getting eaten.

You are on your own on that one. In some 70 years I have not had that problem.

You might try doing some exterminating for a couple weeks before planting. Perhaps you have a rat infestation. Last fall the rats invaded my main garden and consumed about a third of my sweet potato crop. I'm still finding their tunnels, some which are quite extensive.

I put out rat poison bars, from our local farmers' co-op, setting pieces of them in coffee cans which were inclined with the mouth on a downhill slant (for rain protection). This worked very well. The rats ate over 3 lb. of the bars before they stopped disappearing overnight! But in the end the damage stopped.

One just needs to be VERY SURE that no other kinds of animals, which would chew on the bars, get into the garden while being treated.

George
Tahlequah, OK

You can pre-germinate peanuts. Put the peanuts in a ziploc bag with a very damp paper towel wrapped around them. Do NOT leave them in the bag more than 3 days. If you leave them too long, the peanut radicle will start growing and can be broken off very easily. Plant them in moist prepared soil.

DarJones

I with farmerdilla on this one. I have tried to get an early crop and plant in April which is when I plant beans and may have one in ten seeds to sprout. Even though the soil feels warm and is warm enough for most crops the peanuts just rot. This is also true for limas southern peas, Okra and sweet potatoes. When planted mid May for me the germination is near 100%. Last year I planted 300 peanuts in 2in peat pots in may in the greenhouse and had them 3in high in the pots waiting on 2 rows of collard seed to dry on the stalks. I also planted another 3lbs of peanuts in the ground at the same time. I then planted the pots in ground mid June after harvesting the collard seed and produced a fine crop of peanuts come fall with no descernable difference between the in ground planted peanuts verses the peat pots. The peat pots do not disturb the roots and peanuts have a rather large tap root. I don't plan on doing that again because of the labor but I needed 10 rows of peanuts to produce the required seed I needed but only had 8 rows avalable at planting time so the pots was my answer. Rodger

For years I have been germinating peanuts in door starting some time by mid May every year using the seed starting trays(the black plastic ones).Fill the trays with fresh potting soil to about 1 inch.Spread the peanuts evenly on the soil keeping 1/4 inch distance btween seeds.Place the peanuts same way in a row about inch away till the tray is filled.Cover the peanuts with 1 inch of soil.Cover the top of the tray with black plastic and apply the bottom heat with heating pad.Check the moisture every other day.If surface looks dry then feed some water. Peanuts will germinate in about 8 to 10 days.Remove the seedlings as soon as you see the cotyledons emerge.Plant these seedlings in your veggie. garden.This will solve your problem.

You know, I've been wanting to try peanuts here for a long time... but between heavy soil & short seasons, wasn't sure they were worth the effort. Given the amount of space they require, I'm still not sure they're worth it, unless they are heirlooms unavailable elsewhere.

But then, I never could pass up a challenge. ;-) I'll be trying peanuts this year as Rodger mentioned above, started early in peat pots. That technique has been very successful for me with pole limas, so I hope it will give peanuts a fighting chance here also. I grew them successfully when I lived in San Diego, it will be interesting to see what they can do here.