Lady peas, Zipper cream peas are great! I always plant Pinkeye Purplehull every year from local feed store. Southern peas or Cowpeas are actually beans, not peas. They are prolific, drought tolerant, and get their nitrogen from the air, so easy with the fertilizer! I never fertilize mine. My uncle grew about 10 acres every year and never had a problem selling them. My first job was picking peas for $2 a bushel, my cousin and I would race to see who would get the most money! I miss the good old days!

Is there an easy way to shell the shellies? I've bought a lot of pinkeyes last summer already shelled. Do they use a sheller to do that? These were from a small produce stand.

A lot of people use pea shellers now days. My cousin found a sheller on ebay and it works great, it doesn't mash any of the peas. When I was growing up, everyone had a bucket and we all sat around hand-shelling and talking, it was a great way to spend time together except for the sore and purple fingers! LOL

I have Top Pick Pinkeye Purple Hull peas. I like them because most of the pods are at the top of the plant. I have grown them out and they are true to seed.

Update = we've now got about 18 new cowpeas planted for looking at, plus about 10 varieties we already carry... have good germination on everything so far, so as long as we can keep our goats inside their fences, we should have some nice crops to look at!

I was reading through cowpea descriptions in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook, and interested to see that some folks were careful to note whether a variety would climb or not -- there were descriptions that'd say that a variety would sprawl but not actually climb. So after reading that, I went and seeded tall sunflowers near the vining varieties... I don't think the sunflowers will survive for long if the cowpeas climb up them, but it'll be an easy way for me to see which cowpeas do like to climb!

I would love to try a zipper or TX cream. I'd also love to try some of the bicolored peas.
I've never had a pea or bean I didn't like.
I have Red Ripper, Bisbee Red and PEPH Top Pick, plus lots of other seeds to try.
I've got the goat issue,too. Nothing keeps them in if they don't want to be there.

[QUOTE=Tracydr;482511]I would love to try a zipper or TX cream. I'd also love to try some of the bicolored peas.
I've never had a pea or bean I didn't like.
I have Red Ripper, Bisbee Red and PEPH Top Pick, plus lots of other seeds to try.
I've got the goat issue,too. Nothing keeps them in if they don't want to be there.[/QUOTE]


The zipper cream are delicious, so are lady peas. I heard that the Red Rippers are good. A guy that grows for market told me his best seller is Stick Up. It is a Louisiana heirloom, so named because the pods "stick up" on the plant. He said they are very good but I haven't tried yet. Last year, he sold them as fast as he picked them! PEPH is my fav so far. They are easy to tell when they are ready to pick, by color alone. I have a 80' row from seed saved from last year.

White Acre is similar to lady peas and the cream peas. Mine are about to start flowering, but as expected, I found the black bean aphids are starting to bother mine. I sprayed insecticidal soap yesterday evening and I'll have to keep up with that if I want any of my White Acre peas. Each year I have the same problem and if I don't get on it early, I won't be able to keep it under control.

Sometime this week, we will be planting black-eyed and purple hull peas. However many will grow in a 24' x 60' area. The purple hull will be the third growing season of planting from saved seeds. The black eyed peas were bought at a grocery store back in 2010. They do better each generation. This will be the 7th time I have planted them from saved seeds.

I do believe certain varieties adjust to growing in any given garden. The black eyed peas have always grown in very hot drought conditions before. I'm hoping they can grow in the wet cooler conditions that this odd year has produced so far.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;482833]Sometime this week, we will be planting black-eyed and purple hull peas. However many will grow in a 24' x 60' area. The purple hull will be the third growing season of planting from saved seeds. The black eyed peas were bought at a grocery store back in 2010. They do better each generation. This will be the 7th time I have planted them from saved seeds.

I do believe certain varieties adjust to growing in any given garden. The black eyed peas have always grown in very hot drought conditions before. I'm hoping they can grow in the wet cooler conditions that this odd year has produced so far.[/QUOTE]


I think they will do fine Salt. I planted my purplehulls on April 25. They are tall and noticed several flowers yesterday. Have you ever noticed any cross pollination between the purplehull and the black eyes?

I have not noticed any crosses so far. Our plant out date for Black Eyed peas is late April - early September. I've noticed that ones that get part shade grow bigger and produce more peas.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;482897]I have not noticed any crosses so far. Our plant out date for Black Eyed peas is late April - early September. I've noticed that ones that get part shade grow bigger and produce more peas.[/QUOTE]

Thats good to know Salt. I will try black eyes next year too. My tiller is broken, so I will have to wait until then. You should have seen me mowing my garden yesterday, I was laughing myself! I set my pushmower at the highest setting and mowed between the rows!:lol: We had so much rain, the grass got way out of control!:surprised:

[QUOTE=pauldavid;482916]Thats good to know Salt. I will try black eyes next year too. My tiller is broken, so I will have to wait until then. You should have seen me mowing my garden yesterday, I was laughing myself! I set my pushmower at the highest setting and mowed between the rows!:lol: We had so much rain, the grass got way out of control!:surprised:[/QUOTE]

Paul, I mowed our new garden yesterday too. I'm going to till it tomorrow morning and plant the whole thing with peas.

Funny, we both mowed our gardens :lol:

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;482921]Paul, I mowed our new garden yesterday too. I'm going to till it tomorrow morning and plant the whole thing with peas.

Funny, we both mowed our gardens :lol:[/QUOTE]


Now thats even funnier! You know, great minds think alike!:lol:

Zipper Cream continues to be ridiculously popular, even after getting in another 100 lbs of seed from last year's grower, we're now sold out of the 1/4 lb bulk size. Wonder if other folks will have enough next year so that there won't be such a run on ours. (We lined up more folks for growing seed crops this year in case, but, yow, there were lots of folks calling up to ask if they could get 25- or 50-lb bags...)