Plant some peas to fill out that garden

If you have a row or two left in your garden and are wondering what crop to grow in this, the heat of summer, you need not wonder any longer. Plant some peas!

Cowpeas, or field peas, are legumes commonly grown today for food, hay, grazing and soil building. Natives of central Africa, cowpeas have spread to practically all warm, tillable areas of the earth.

Cowpeas are popular in the state of Georgia and make a good, relatively inexpensive soil builder. Easy to grow, field peas thrive on practically any type of well-drained soil. As soil conditioners, they make sandy ground more compact and heavy clays more friable through added humus. And being the legumes that they are, cowpeas reactivate dead soil with myriads of bacteria from nodules-supplying nitrogen.

For food, cowpeas are prepared as follows: soak peas in lukewarm water several hours, then let simmer at low heat until tender. Season with pork fat, onion, cheese and green pepper for a tasty, sustaining dish. Cowpeas have 19.4 percent protein, 54.5 percent carbohydrates, and 1.1 percent fat. Their vitamin content, especially B1, is high.

Plant cowpeas an inch deep and about three inches apart in well-drained soil in late spring and every two weeks thereafter until July 15 for a succession. Sow them in double rows six to eight inches apart and the rows three to four feet apart. One pound of seed sows 100 feet of drill, depending on how close they are spaced.

The following are some of the more popular cowpea varieties.

• Big Boy (60 days) is a prolific home garden, dual purpose type edible pea, ideal for canning and freezing. A medium-early semi-vining pea.

• Cream 40 (60 days) is a cross between the extra early Blackeye and a midseason Cream variety. Pods are high above the foliage. Vining is at lower levels and does not interfere with harvest. Developed to fill the need for an early, more productive long pod Cream variety.

• Pinkeye Purplehull (50 days) is one of the most popular peas. A true white purplehull pod for market, freezing or shipping. When green, the peas are white with a small purple eye. Flavor is excellent. With favorable weather, will produce two crops on the same plants in one season.

• Zipper Cream (70 days) is one of the most popular peas around the middle Georgia area. Large pods filled with whitish-green irregular-shaped peas. Easy to shell by hand, like unzipping a zipper. A prolific pea.

• Mississippi Silver (55 days) is a crowder pea with beautiful silver-colored pods. It is earlier, has less vine, more concentrated yield, and shells much easier than any other crowder type. Bunch type plant.

•Calico Crowder (also called Polecat Pea or Hereford Pea) are buff-colored with maroon splashes. Very flavorful.

• Big Red (Mandy) Ripper is an heirloom variety from Virginia and North Carolina. A pea with 10-inch pods containing up to 18 peas per pod! Reddish-green pods are borne high on the vines, which are resistant to heat and drought.

There are many other cowpea varieties to choose from, but space does not permit a fair description of them. Try some cowpeas in your garden – you’ll be glad you did!

Tim Lewis is a Georgia Green Industry Association Certified Plant Professional, gardening writer, former Perry High School horticulture instructor, and former horticulturalist at Henderson Village and Houston Springs. He and his wife Susan operate Lewis Farms Nursery. 954-1507 or timlewis1@windstream.net.

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