Elite Cowpea Seed

An upright cowpea variety with cream-colored peas in concentrated pod sets.

An upright southern pea

Elite is an erect, high-bush cowpea with a concentrated pod set. The plants produce white flowers and about five-inch pods containing small to medium cream-colored peas. Cowpeas are warm-season legumes, sometimes sold as southern peas or field peas. Their upright habit keeps the crop easy to walk around and pick, while a concentrated set can make harvest more efficient than a vine that keeps extending across the row.

Give it heat and sun

Wait until frost danger has passed and the soil has warmed. Cowpeas prefer warm to hot weather and tolerate relatively dry summer conditions. Choose a sunny bed, with at least six hours of direct light and ideally more. In a garden, sow seed two to three inches apart in rows three to four feet apart, then cover with one-half to one inch of soil. Plan spacing around the plant’s bush growth and the room needed to reach both sides of the row.

Keep early growth clear

Control weeds while seedlings are small. Once established, southern peas grow vigorously and can shade out some weeds, but early competition can slow the crop before it closes the row. Mulch helps conserve soil moisture. These legumes fix nitrogen after a good root system forms, so heavy nitrogen feeding is usually unnecessary. Too much nitrogen can delay flowering and favor leafy tops at the expense of pods. During very hot, dry weather, water at the base while plants are flowering and setting pods.

Pick fresh or dry

For fresh shelling peas, pick pods when the peas reach full size, then shell them. A pod may hold 20 or more peas. For dry seed, leave the pods on the plants until the plant dies down, but harvest before pods split open. The cream-colored beans suit canning or freezing. Chill unshelled fresh pods in the refrigerator and use them within about a week; shelled fresh peas can be blanched, cooled in ice water and frozen. Dry shelled peas keep for months when stored cool and dry.