By its nature, cowpea is a tropical plant that came to us from distant Africa. Therefore, when growing it, one should take into account the crop’s increased requirements for heat and light. In general, this is a bean that is completely acclimatized to our conditions and is unpretentious, just with very long pods. It can grow as a bush, but more often it has long thin shoots reaching 5 m.
Main characteristics of culture
The cowpea genus (Vigna) is part of the Legume family. It unites about 150 species of herbaceous and flowering plants (shrubs, subshrubs). The forms are curly and creeping. In tropical climates, the crop is of great economic importance:
- feed;
- vegetable;
- grain.
One type of cowpea, Vigna unguiculata, has found use in agriculture.
Important! The crop in many southern countries is grown as green manure. When incorporated into the soil, cowpea improves its structure and increases fertility.
The heat-loving vegetable plant was previously grown only in West Africa, China, India, the Middle East, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Nowadays the beautiful cowpea can be seen at dachas in the Moscow region and Siberia. The popularity of the culture is growing rapidly. It is productive, does not require care, and its fruits are very useful.
Description of cowpea vegetable
Resembles green beans, but is not of this species. Does not cross with beans. An herbaceous annual plant, it can be a bush, low or tall, or climbing. Very beautiful when in bloom.
The vine's stems grow up to 3-4 meters , the brushes have blades, about a meter long, and as thick as a pencil. Productivity up to 3 kg of beans per bush .
This vine, when reaching its maximum yield, is quite heavy. Requires strong support. Beautiful, entwined with plants, terrace, balcony, gazebo.
Fruits from July to October. The beans are slightly larger than a wheat grain, light coffee-colored or black.
Vigna is a vine reaching a length of about 3-4 meters
Popular varieties
Cowpea has many varieties. Breeders offer summer residents about 19 cultivars to choose from. All are characterized by long vines (4 m) and pods.
Black Seed
The variety is early ripening, the first blades are cut at 50-60 days. Their length during this period is 25-30 cm. The maximum size of the pods is 100 cm. Black Seed is a climbing variety of bush type. The length of the lashes reaches 4 m. Single, light purple flowers are collected in racemes. Productivity – 4.5 kg per bush. Fruiting lasts until the first frost. The beans are harvested every week.
Countess
This early variety of cowpea pleases summer residents not only with its harvests. Its bushes are very decorative, as can be seen in the photo. They are used to form beautiful screens in the garden, up to 3 m high. Trellis are made from bars and wire. The first shoulder blades begin to tear after 65 days. Their maximum length is 50 cm. With proper planting and good care, up to 2.5 kg of useful pods can be collected from an area of 1 m². The ripe grains of the Countess cowpea are black.
Lillian
A climbing variety. The length of the lashes is 3.5 m. They are grown on a support. The first pods are cut after 75-85 days. The variety is mid-season. The maximum length of the beans is 60-80 cm. The grains are purple-brown, medium-sized, kidney-shaped. In cooking, the pods are used at technical ripeness. The yield of cowpea Liliana is 4 kg of beans from 1 bush.
Brown Sid
An early ripening variety, it forms stems up to 4 m long. The flowers are light purple. It takes 55 days to form the first harvest of blades (30 cm). The color of the pods is light green, maximum length is 100 cm. Beans collected in the technical ripeness phase are juicy and tender. Fruiting continues until frost. 4-5 kg of beans are harvested from one bush per season. Collected once every 5-7 days.
Description and characteristics of varieties
Green beans vary in pod weight, yield indicators, color and blade length, varieties, and ripening time.
The plant can be different in growth form:
- bush;
- short, curly;
- curly.
We bring to your attention a description of the best and most popular varieties of green beans, depending on the harvest.
Early varieties of green beans
The difference between green beans and regular beans is that they grow without coarse fibers, which complicate their cooking. The difficulty in harvesting early varieties of beans is not to miss the moment when the pods are ripe. Some types of crops, when systematically harvested, are able to continue flowering and form a new crop.
Blue Lake
A climbing plant that can reach 2 m in height. The first beans are picked 50–55 days after emergence. The bluish-green blade can grow up to 16 cm. You can harvest 600–650 g from one plant.
Fedoseevna
A bush variety of beans, which is distinguished by the high taste of beans. The first blades are harvested 46–50 days after sowing; the plant has a high ability to produce a second harvest. Light green beans often exceed 20 cm in length. This variety is suitable for preparing various culinary dishes, canning and freezing. The crop yield is 2 kg/1 m².
Shadow on the fence
A high-yielding climbing plant variety, the first harvest of which is harvested 45–50 days after the first shoots. The light green pod has a slightly curved shape, its length is 16–21 cm, width - 1 cm. A universal variety. The crop yield is up to 4 kg/1 m².
Gait
A compact bush capable of producing many fleshy, strong and elastic pods of a dark green color. The yield of the variety is up to 3 kg/1 m², the first blades are plucked on the 50th day after sowing in the ground. Used mostly in cooking.
Did you know? The name of the culture comes from the Greek word φασεολος (phaseolus), which means
«
long narrow boat
»
.
Medium ripening varieties
Most varieties of green beans belong to the average ripening period.
Earring
A climbing type of crop, the beans of which are distinguished by their excellent taste and nutritional qualities. The blades are straight, light green in color, up to 21 cm long, up to 3 cm wide. Seryozhka is a high-yielding universal variety. The crop yield is up to 3.5 kg/1 m².
Sissy
A climbing crop with tender beans of excellent creamy taste. The first blades ripen 70–75 days after emergence. The pod is curved, long, yellow in color, and contains many vitamins and mineral salts. Versatile to use. The crop yield is up to 1.5 kg/1 m².
Anniversary
A small bush plant, the height of which is no more than 35 cm. The variety was developed thanks to the efforts of Siberian breeders. The first blades ripen 55–65 days after emergence. The taste and nutritional qualities of beans are rated very highly. The yellow blades are decorated with a purple pattern. The crop yield is up to 2.5 kg/1 m². The Jubilee variety is distinguished by its high resistance to adverse weather conditions.
Purple Queen
A bushy compact plant, the height of which does not exceed 40 cm. Up to 16 pods grow on a bush. Large, dense, juicy blades are painted in a noble inky blue color; the blades do not grow more than 14 cm in length.
The taste of the bean is sweetish, which makes it possible to use it in fresh salads. During heat treatment, the beans lose their original color and become simply green. The beans ripen on the 63rd day from the moment the first shoots appear. Productivity - 3 kg/1 m².
Did you know? Residents of Great Britain call beans “Dutch beans” because they learned about this culture from the Dutch.
Late varieties
Late varieties are grown in the southern regions, which are famous for their long and warm summers.
Beronia
The plant is tall. The pods ripen on the 90th day from the appearance of the first shoots. Green blades grow up to 22 cm long, and their width can reach 2.5 cm. Productivity - 1.7 kg/1 m².
Xera
Bush variety, small in size, resistant to viruses. The beans are harvested 75–85 days after emergence. The blades are medium in size, colored light green, and ripen together. The crop yield is 2 kg/1 m².
Hope
A compact bush capable of producing many fleshy, strong and elastic beans of a rich dark green color, of medium size. The yield of the variety is about 2.2 kg/1 m², the first blades are harvested on the 80th day after planting. The main use of this variety is in cooking.
Planting and growing in open ground
Growing a heat-loving crop has its own characteristics. The yield of cowpea depends on the fertility of the soil. During the season, the plant removes a large amount of nutrients. Therefore, this vegetable is grown in one place for 1 year. Repeated plantings are carried out after 2-3 years.
Choosing a landing site
When choosing a place for cowpeas, observe crop rotation. Preference is given to areas of the garden where the following grew in the previous season:
- eggplant;
- cucumber;
- tomato;
- cabbage (all varieties);
- potato.
The level of lighting affects the productivity of vegetable crops. In sunny areas, the yield is higher and corresponds to what is indicated in the description of the variety. The legume plant can grow in partial shade. The formation of the shoulder blades occurs more slowly than in the sun.
In the conditions of the Urals and Siberia, many summer residents grow cowpeas in greenhouses. So many pods are collected from several bushes 3-4 m high that they are enough for the whole winter. In closed ground, fruiting continues until late autumn.
Preparing the bed
They approach soil preparation responsibly. There will be no good harvest on depleted soil. Over the course of a season, the plant grows a large volume of vegetative mass. For this it needs nitrogen. Cowpea responds best to organic matter.
Fresh manure is applied to the soil in the fall. At the same time, superphosphate is added to it during digging. Approximate fertilizer consumption:
- fresh manure – 3 kg/m²;
- simple superphosphate - 1 tbsp. l/m².
Advice!
Corn can be sown next to cowpeas; it will replace the support.
Timing for sowing seeds in the ground
Cowpea seeds are sown in the ground only in the southern regions of Russia. Sowing begins in April-May, as soon as the threat of frost on the soil has passed and suitable weather has established:
- the soil will warm up to 10 °C;
- The average daily temperature will be 15-20 °C.
Cowpeas are planted in rows. Each row has 3 lines. The recommended planting pattern is 45 * 25 * 10 cm. The seeds are laid out in furrows and sprinkled with a 4 cm layer of soil.
How to grow cowpea
I’m comparing two options: I grew cowpea varieties “Countess” and “Dachnitsa” in the Kuban foothills, my good friend grew “Countess” and “Rowan Beads” in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Both places are distinguished by an abundance of summer sun and warmth, but in Kuban the summers are drier and longer.
It is better to do the same with cowpea seeds as with beans: soak in relatively hot (+60 ºС) water. When the water has cooled, drain it almost completely, but leave it at the bottom. And put it in a warm place. I do this a day before planting.
How I grew cowpea in Kuban
Here, in Kuban, they love climbing beans (cowpeas are just starting to take root), and traditionally they plant a lot: tall, 3-meter thick stakes are stuck in rows and a pair of “beans” are planted next to them.
I decided to follow the advice of N.I. Kurdyumov and planted cowpeas and beans mixed with corn in a row on the southern side of the melon field. The experiment was not a success: where the corn sprouted, there were no beans, and where the cowpea sprouted, there was no corn. I had to stick the stakes in.
A little about the soil. Our clay is heavy. The melon patch is a fenced area in which the main components are foliage, shells, small twigs of the neighboring hazel tree, some soil from cleaning the drainage ditch, food waste stored all winter, ash and mown grass brought in from April to September. By the time of planting, everything is covered with freshly cut grass. She unrolled a strip of toilet paper over this grass, poured soil from molehills, and planted cowpeas, beans and corn in this soil.
Since the ripening period of cowpeas is quite long, the crop should be harvested as it ripens.
She planted them in mid-May at the same time as planting watermelons and melons, for which she sprinkled heaps of molehill soil on top of the grass. I immediately covered everything with dry grass on top, because the birds are vigilantly watching all my actions. And in general there have already been precedents.
Vigna came to the surface within a week. And after another week we had to stick stakes in so that she would have something to grab onto. I watered all the plants once every two days - June turned out to be unusually dry and hot. In July the rains improved, and the cowpea grew further without additional watering. In the first ten days of July we already ate the pods. And they continued to eat until frost, although in October the cowpeas bore noticeably less fruit.
The fertilizing was mowed grass placed in the melon all summer.
In Komsomolsk-on-Amur
In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, planting was also done directly in the ground, but a little later - at the end of May, on the south side of the garage in rich garden soil. The bed is raised and well heated. The seeds were also pre-soaked in hot water. The shoots also appeared a week later and already in mid-June they were climbing with might and main over the stretched plastic mesh. Almost no watering was required; there was enough rain. By the end of the second ten days of July, the beans reached 50 cm. They bore fruit until mid-September.
There were no pests on cowpeas either in Kuban or in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and there were no diseases either.
A lover of heat, cowpea feels uncomfortable at temperatures below +10 °C.
Plant care during the growing season
On June nights in the open ground it can be cool (less than +10 °C). Therefore, for the first week after transplantation, the seedlings are covered with covering material. It is removed after the weather becomes truly summer. Vertical supports are placed at each cowpea bush, or a high trellis is built along the ribbons (rows).
Important!
Cowpea does not grow well in heavy, clay soil.
Watering and loosening the soil
Regular watering has a good effect on crop productivity. In moderately humid weather they are carried out once a week. During drought periods - every 3-4 days. Drying out the soil during budding has a bad effect on the harvest. Some of the flowers are falling off.
Recommended water consumption per irrigation is 30 l/m². If this condition is met, the soil at a depth of 30 cm will always be moist. After each watering, the soil between the rows is loosened. At the same time, weeds are removed.
Feeding
An actively growing vine needs to be fed. During budding, cowpea needs phosphorus, potassium and trace elements. During this period, the need for boron, zinc, iron, copper, molybdenum, and manganese is high. Fertilizers are applied once every 3 weeks:
- water – 10 l;
- nitrophoska – 30 g.
This volume of liquid fertilizer is designed for an area of 2.5 m².
Garter
Vertical support for cowpeas is necessary. The problem is solved in different ways. Along the rows, nets with 10 * 10 cm cells are stretched onto vertical supports. Each vine is tied to the upper horizontal support with twine. As the side shoots grow, they are twisted around the central stem.
Reference!
Vigna enriches the soil with nitrogen. Its roots are inhabited by nodule bacteria that absorb nitrogen from the air.
Diseases and pests of cowpea, how to fight
Symptoms of fungal diseases appear on leaves and stems towards the end of summer. Most often, cowpea suffers from gray and white rot. Varieties resistant to these infections have already been developed. Dangerous pests include spider mites and aphids.
Most often, plants that are overfed with nitrogen (humus, urea, mullein) suffer from aphids. The mite attacks plantings during drought. They fight it with water. Cowpea is watered using the sprinkling method.
Pests
Cowpea beans are a plant with excellent immunity. It is not affected by diseases that occur in other cultivated representatives of Legumes. But fresh and fleshy pods are attacked by two types of insects:
- Slugs. They are carriers of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. Through beans they can infect humans and animals with helminths. Slugs happily devour leaves, fruits, and stems, thereby causing significant damage. Prevention - cleaning the beds from various weeds. Control methods include collecting specimens by hand, traps in the form of cloth soaked in beer.
- Aphid. Small green insects eat everything in their path. They appear from neighboring plants, trees and shrubs. You can notice the special management by the curled bean leaves, green sticky paths on the greenery, and a huge number of ants. You can get rid of aphids with insecticides.
Important! Use medications strictly according to instructions. It is better to plant herbs with a spicy aroma around the beans.
They will repel pests. Experienced gardeners plant cowpeas next to crops where there is an abundance of ladybugs, spiders and wasps. These insects prey on aphids and, without knowing it, help humans.
Harvesting and storage
The beans are harvested at technical ripeness (length 30-40 cm, diameter 10 mm), and do not wait until their length reaches its maximum. In 50-60 centimeter pods, the grains are already hard. Cleaning is carried out every 10 days.
To obtain their seed material, several beans are left on the bushes. Allow them to fully ripen. The grains are dried and stored until the next season in a canvas bag. 2-3 laurel leaves are placed in it so that the bean weevil does not appear in the grains.
Reference!
Cowpea beans can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days.
Young juicy beans are eaten, frozen, and prepared for the winter. Before freezing them:
- wash;
- cut into pieces 3-4 cm long;
- blanch in boiling water;
- douse with cold water;
- dry;
- packaged in bags or plastic containers;
- sent to the freezer.
Landing Features
Since cowpea is a heat-loving crop, it is cultivated using seedlings. Changes, as a rule, do not exceed a diameter of 1 cm, and can be of different colors - from black to red. When choosing seed, preference should be given to varieties adapted to the agroclimatic conditions of regions in temperate latitudes - Black Side bush beans with pods 1 m long, consistently productive Red Side.
For your information!
For grains to germinate, the soil must reach a temperature of 15 °C.
Soil preparation
The culture develops well on loose soil with a high humus layer. The acidity level should be neutral. The best preceding crops are all nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, etc.), as well as cucumbers, onions, cabbage, and root vegetables. The beds are prepared in the fall, when compost or humus (2-3 kg/m²) is distributed over the area, then dug up. Immediately before planting, add a little superphosphate, urea and potassium sulfate.
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Timing and technology of sowing/planting
Sowing for forcing seedlings begins in the first ten days of May. First, the seeds are disinfected in a slightly pink solution of manganese - 20 minutes. The seed is germinated for 5 days, kept in a damp cloth at 25 °C. Further actions:
- Peat pots are filled with a substrate of turf, garden soil and humus (1:1:1) with the addition of ½ part of washed sand. They use just such a container, since cowpeas do not tolerate picking well.
- The soil is compacted, 2-3 seeds are placed in each container.
- The seed material is covered with a layer of soil mixture of 2-3 cm, moistened with small portions of water so that it does not float.
- The pots are covered with glass and transferred to a warm, bright place.
- After germination, the shelter is removed, leaving one strong plant in each container.
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Seedlings are planted in beds in early to mid-June. Parts of the pot into which the roots have not yet grown are carefully removed. If the root system has completely mastered the earthen ball, the seedlings can be planted together with the container. The holes are prepared according to a 30 x 45 cm pattern, where the first value is the distance between the specimens. When planting, make sure that the root collar remains level with the soil surface. The beds are watered and mulched with peat.
Benefits and harms of cowpea
The substance arginine was found in the shells of cowpea pods. This amino acid is necessary for the human body. Age, illness, and dietary deviations reduce its production. With arginine deficiency, the risk of atherosclerosis increases, problems with the kidneys and liver arise.
Traditional medicine uses the healing properties of cowpea. It contains recipes for many diseases. Nutritionists recommend including young shoulder blades in the menu for people diagnosed with:
- gout;
- rheumatism;
- gastritis;
- anemia;
- kidney inflammation.
Reference!
Arginine normalizes sugar levels. The leaves are useful for people with diabetes.
There are other beneficial substances in the pulp of the pods. This is magnesium, stress resistance depends on it. There is potassium and sodium. They help against edema, the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system depends on them. Cowpea flowers are used in folk medicine. A decoction is prepared from them. Drink it if you have kidney stones.
Raw cowpea leaves contain substances that can cause intoxication in humans. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat it raw without heat treatment. Experts do not recommend eating a lot of beans. They can cause excess gas formation.
Tasty and healthy
As it is written on the packet of seeds, cowpea “countess” is ahead of fish in proteins. Cowpea beans are not as fibrous as green beans. Ripe seeds are also more tender than beans and are easily boiled.
Beans are added to salads, soups, and casseroles. They can be frozen. Sprouted seeds are used in dietary and healthy nutrition.
There is a lot of information about the positive effects of cowpea beans, seeds and decoction on the heart, liver, stomach, kidneys and other organs. But here it is better to consult a doctor.
Vigna in cooking
Salads are prepared from boiled beans. Young pods are stewed with vegetables and meat. They make tasty and nutritious stews, casseroles, omelettes, and side dishes. Ripe, dry grains are stored for a long time. They are cooked and used in the same way as beans and peas.
A simple recipe for preparing young cowpea pods, ingredients:
- beans;
- butter;
- onion;
- garlic;
- salt and spices.
The pods are washed, cut, and boiled for 10 minutes in salted water. Diced onion and garlic are fried in a frying pan. Pour boiled beans into it, mix, salt and pepper, bring to readiness, and serve. The dish is decorated with greens.
What to do with the cowpea harvest?
If all the cowpeas are planted at the same time, after two months there will be a healthy armful of 40-50 cm beans. The plant will not stop there and after the first harvest will continue to produce more and more beans. So you need to take care of its preparation.
On a note! After harvesting, the green mass is readily eaten by domestic animals (which justifies the name cowpeas). If you give steamed seeds to pigs, they will produce more lard (the Ukrainians have already taken note of this).
The easiest option is freezing: cut into pieces and put in some container and into the freezer. In winter it will go into soup, stew, or simply fried with onions and eggs.
You can make the traditional Kuban tursha, but with cowpeas instead of green beans, the dish has a completely different, more delicate taste.
Beans in the stage of milky and milky-waxy ripeness are used boiled, stewed, fried, as part of soups and stews, as well as for pickling and pickling.
If you decide to eat right now, it’s quite simple: heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the onion, add chopped cowpeas, fry for another 5 minutes, add salt and pepper and pour in the egg. Bring to readiness under the lid over low heat.
Vigna is tender and cooks quickly. I would compare it to cauliflower and broccoli, not in taste, of course, but in structure.
Cowpea seeds are noticeably smaller than beans, but have a milder taste. If the young beans were not collected in time, let them ripen and be used for grain. And the dried pods can be used for medicinal purposes, just like the pods of regular beans.
The easiest option for harvesting cowpeas is to cut them into pieces and freeze them.
The tops of cowpeas, like all legumes, will benefit the soil - into the garden bed. And let the roots remain in the ground. Such a wonderful plant, no waste - it's all about it! And if you put it on the gazebo, it will also delight the eye with greenery, flowers and hanging pods. The Rowan Beads variety is especially decorative in this regard.
Reviews
Elena Petrovna, 41 years old, Rostov
Cowpea was grown by seedlings and direct sowing in the ground. I came to the conclusion that in our climate it is not worth spending time growing seedlings. Productivity is higher if the bed is located in the sun. In the fall I add manure to the soil, in the spring - superphosphate and urea. In summer I feed it 2-3 times.
Klim Sergeevich, 47 years old, Krasnodar region.
My wife has been planting cowpea for 3 years. I read about its benefits for the female body. There is a dried up apple tree at the dacha that I just can’t get around to cutting down. She sows beans next to her. There is no need to build a support. The tree is covered with greenery all summer. Because of the long pods it looks very exotic. I measured individual specimens. The length reached 90 cm.
Ekaterina Viktorovna, 53 years old, Moscow region
I have diabetes. You have to follow a diet. I have been growing cowpeas for 5 years now. I plant different varieties. I freeze the shoulder blades for the winter. I don’t let them outgrow, I collect them once every 5 days.
How to grow seedlings from seeds at home?
Vigna is a heat-loving crop, so it is better to grow it through seedlings. Here are the answers to the question of how to plant seeds correctly.
- Which container and soil should I choose? It is recommended to grow seedlings in peat pots. The soil should be loose, nutritious and well breathable.
- How to prepare the soil? Pour peat, ordinary soil, and humus into the container in equal quantities, and add 0.5 parts of washed sand to the mixture. Mix everything, fill the pots to about 3/4 of the volume, and seal.
- How to prepare seeds? Treat the planting material in a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes. Then rinse well. Place the seeds in a damp cloth and keep in this form for 5-6 days at a temperature of +25°C, rinsing every day under running warm water. When sprouts appear, move the seeds into pots (2-3 beans per container). Cover with glass.
- How to care for seedlings? Timely care will allow you to get strong plants. This requires:
- Until the first sunrise, keep the containers in a warm, dry place at a temperature of +25°C. Moisten the soil every day, but do not overwater.
When sunrise appears, you should reduce the temperature to +18 – +20°C and remove the glass.
- When the first pair of true leaves appear, carefully cut out the excess seedlings with scissors, leaving only strong plants left.
- Watering should be done evenly, avoiding stagnation of water.
- Apply mineral fertilizers once every 2 weeks. The best fertilizers are Agricola, Fertika. Use them strictly according to the instructions.
Attention! With an illiterate approach to seed germination, it is impossible to obtain healthy sprouts. In most cases, planting material does not sprout at all, but simply dies.
