Planting Pink Eyed Peas - Cowpeas, Southern Peas, Black Eyed Peas
Channel: Escaping The Daily Grind
Date: 23/04/2024

The type of cowpea I am planting is called a pink eyed pea, which is basically a black eyed pea with pink around the eye.  They are also called southern peas, and cream peas.  They are a crop that does extremely well in the heat, like I get in South Texas.  

It can get extremely hot here, and also dry in the summer.  Even though our humidity stays high, we receive very little rain in the summer and therefor heat and drought tolerant crops are a necessity here.  We can get away with planting less heat resistant plants if we are careful about the timing and offer some shade in the late afternoon heat, but with 100+ degree days for weeks on end, planting heat resistant crops really makes for easier growing.  In fact, they say we have a split season.  

Our times to grow most veggies are from March-June, and then from late august till frost.  From late June to mid august it's just too hot for most plants.  That is except for these cowpeas.  Cowpeas can grow in extreme heat.  

Last year I grew these and we had a few days over 110 degrees!  They survived and gave us a decent crop for the size of plot I grew them in.  I had grown them in a raised bed that was 4x8 and I was only able to harvest about half the peas because I planted a bit late and frost started to set in.  I had to harvest before all the beans were ready.  So this year I am planting early, and I suspect I will get an incredible harvest.  I was able to fill about half of a gallon bag of beans last year, but I suspect I will be able to get at least double that, possibly triple this year.