If you are a back yard gardener at some point you are going to have things that are complete failures. If you have never had something fail in your garden, then give it time and you will.
My first failure this year was my attempt to grow cow peas next to my corn plot. I don't know if I planted them too soon (probably), if I got some bad seed, or if I just didn't do something right. I planted them twice and both times I got very sparse germination. I feel like I am wasting 200 sq. ft. of good planting space fooling with these peas, so I decided to give up on them until the weather really gets hot.
My corn in that area is doing great, so I decided to plant an additional five rows of peaches and cream corn. That gives me 250 feet of corn which I hope will produce a decent harvest. This batch will be about a month behind my first planting.
Here is the corn, you can see the bare patch behind it
Corn is doing good, so I am doubling down on it.
14 comments:
WOW! You just planted it recently and it's already so big!
Thanks Jenny, I checked my spreadsheet and it is 34 days old. I planted this batch on March 10th. Seed packet says 83 days to harvest and that would be June 1st. I have had this variety harvest in 60 days in the heat of summer. Late May to early June should be about right if I can take care of it. Fertilized last week so it should start to grow faster.
Just ignore the failures and celebrate the successes. The corn looks awesome!!
Amen to that Grafix, Thomas Edison I read took over 10,000 tries before he perfected the light bulb.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison
I agree with Grafix, but I am happy to hear that everyone has some struggles.
I am sorry about your cowpeas. Are these your White Acre peas that you so wanted to be able to grow?
Lookin' good! I hope mine is that successful.
Cristy - Yes, they were the white acres and yes I can't get any seed because of the drought last year. My second try was Sadandy peas. Once I harvest the corn I still have plenty to plant, I have zipper cream, texas cream 40, and more sadandy.
Granny - It will, everything you touch grows to perfection. You have fertilizer pumping through your veins. :)
Kris, your corn looks great. Sorry to hear about your struggle with your peas. My spring peas are a disappointment this year. Only two out of 5 varieties had good germination, and with this wacky weather they are struggling. Of course, that gives me more room for lettuce...
Thanks Ed, I probably pushed the envelope in planting my cow peas too early. It is weird that some did germinate so I don't know what happened. The weather has been a bit on the wacky side this year.
So, what do you think of the Sadandy? I was looking at them online. The White Acre are your absolute favorites, right?
The white acres are my favorites as far as taste. I don't know about growing them because I never have.
I stumbled across the Sadandy's at the feed store while looking for white acres. I asked the guy what was popular and he said those were. I have since read online they are a cross between a white acre pea and lady finger pea. I don't know if that is true, but if it is then they are probably pretty tasty.
I am going to try planting the Sadandy's again probably in June after my corn is done and it is good and hot.
I debated about what type of crowder/cowpea to plant. After mentioning my struggle to my husband, he declare pink eye purple hull to be his favorite. So I ordered those.
When I got my order, the people I bought them from sent me a free sample of Mississippi Cream peas. I want to save seed. How do I ensure seed purity with the 2 types? Have you ever had this type of pea? Do you like it? How many peas do I need to plant at a minimum to get a few messes of peas for the family? (We just want to try the taste right now.)
Thanks for pushing me into growing cowpeas. :)
Cristy - I did grow pinkeye purple hulls exclusively last year. They are quite tasty to me too. Boil them with butter and salt for 60 to 90 minutes and the peas absorb the buttery taste.
Last year I grew purple hulls in one 4x8 bed, one 4x4 bed, and one area about 4x12 feet. I ended with with 9.63 lbs. of peas. That was over a bushels worth. A bushel is 8 lbs. shelled. They have a tendency to want to vine and kind of sprawled all over the place in the beds. If I was going to plant them again I will do it in long rows. In the bed I planted them 1 seed every 3 inches in all directions. If you look at my blog posts from June to August of last year you will see the purple hull pics. I am not sure about cross pollination if you plant multiple varieties.
Thanks for the info, Kris. I will keep you posted. :)
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