Cow Pea ‘Grey Speckled Palapye’

Description

From Adaptive Seeds: We have tried growing many varieties of cowpea / black-eyed pea / crowder pea through the years and had never experienced a harvest worth writing about until 2014 when we gave Grey Speckled Palapye a try and finally, a cowpea worthy of praise in our growing conditions! Sometimes you just gotta keep trying. Short, somewhat viney plants are very productive with long pods. Beans are flavorful dried and can be eaten fresh as well. Early and tolerant of cool weather. Pods shed a few early rains and thresh easily. Very heat and drought tolerant, also good as summer leguminous cover crop. For dry beans, pull entire plants and allow to after-ripen before processing. Collect seeds from beans that are fully dry. Shell by hand or by dancing on the dry pods, winnow or screen to clean. Test for dryness with a hammer – dry beans shatter, moist beans squish. Originally from a market in Palapye, Botswana. 75 days to fresh, 95 to dry. Cowpeas are self-pollinating and do not need isolation for seed saving purposes. Photo courtesy of Adaptive Seeds

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Care: Plant 3-4″ apart in rows 18-36″ apart in full sun.

Fall Harvest variety

Late-season vegetables adapted to tolerate both the heat of late summer and the cool nights of fall. Harvest in late summer or fall. See our Fall & Winter Vegetable Guide for specific planting/harvest times & freeze-out temperatures.