They may germinate, but cow peas won't do much growing until hot weather. I don't start planting cow peas until until May.

I was hoping you would respond farmerdill since you seem to be the resident expert on cow peas on this forum.

What zone are you in? According to my planting chart from UGA extension office, I can plant cowpeas April 1st. I am a few weeks early and just wondered. Thanks for the information.

Just curious about white acres. The peas are so small that they take forever to shell, which is okay as long as that's not your main crop. Yummy, yes, but when I gardened in AL nothing could beat purple hulls or "Mississippi" peas (Mississippi Silver, etc) for vigor and productivity. Do you plan to grow them, too?

In florida I put all my hot-weather legumes in the ground before I leave, which this year was end of february. As long as it is past the LAFD there is little risk in it. There is also no particular advantage in it, just in my case I have no choice.

If I had the luxury I would plant Vigna varieties when soil temp is getting around 70 average or when night-time lows were not going below 60.

I am in Augusta just off I-20. I usually began planting around the first of May, and at 2-3 week intervals until August.Cowpeas need hot weather and grow when spring crops burn out. Earlier planting tend to sit and sulk. later plants catch up, pass and leave the early plantings in the dust. Some early versions of purple hulls like Quick Pick do better in cool weather than traditional cowpeas. If you like white peas, White Acre is better than the others like Lady that I have tried. Certainly Zipper, Purple Hulls, Blackeyes, Crowders are more productive and a lot easier to harvest as shellies, but each has its own unique flavor so it is best to grow what you like most to eat.
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Nice peas, FD. You have some clay there?

Negative. This area is the sandhills. Good for watermelons for everything else I wish I had some clay.

Planatus - I have an electric pea sheller that I bought this year so I don't have to worry about the shelling being an issue. I did grow a bunch of purple hulls last year and they were very productive. I did have a huge problem with aphids and ants on them so I probably won't grow them this year.

I like purple hulls, but I like the flavor of white acres a lot more. This year I plan to grow white acres, zipper cream, texas cream, and sadandy field peas. That is why I am trying to get started so early.

Farmerdill - Thanks for that wisdom and the pictures. It is good to know you are in Augusta, I am on the other side of the state in Columbus.

I will keep you posted on my progress, I also track my garden on my blog. Thanks again.

http://georgiahomegarden.blogspot.com/

You lucky lady, a pea sheller! I once grew orange sulfur cosmos among my field peas and I think it helped with insect balance. With the ants/aphids, I did best with half-runners like Peking Black or full runners like Red Ripper. The ants seem to have a harder time farming the aphids farther from the ground.

Thanks planatus, while I did enjoy how silky smooth my hands were from all the pea shelling, this year I decided to splurge on a Mr. Pea Electric Pea sheller. I will keep you posted on how the white acres do.