I don't grow Red Ripper but it is listed as a vining pea (5-6 ft). Black Crowder is a bush pea, maybe 2 ft.

As Farmerdilla stated red ripper is vining,I have grown it and texas longhorn both are very similar in growth habit and color with texas longhorn having bigger peas. I have had them completely cover a 10ft wide row and they will climb up on anything in their path. As with most all peas they are happiest to let sprawl on the ground but it is easiler to find and pick peas on the vining types if they are trained onto sometype of trelis.Black crowder is more typical of most southern peas in growth habit. The Black crowder is pink when picked in the shelly stage and dries to black. Peas like the heat. The hotter the better and are very drought tolerant but will produce more if given ample water. So the more sun the better. Rodger

rodger, I have had Red Rippers that only made a bush, but were covered with short hulled peas. Maybe they were't true Red Rippers because all I've read about them is that they have long vines. My Black Crowders have had vines up to six feet long with long hulled peas, but I keep reading that Black Crowders are a bush type. The garden has clay dirt. Maybe that has something to do with it. Reckon?

Thanks for the information, I knew I could count on the experts at this forum!

I am really looking forward to trying both of these peas. I will plant most of them in full sun but I think I am going to try a few seeds of each in spots that get slightly less than full sun just to satisfy my curiosity.

I've never grown Red Rippers, have seed, I'll plant them later when I have room. Maybe in my corn, it's not lookin' too good since the late freeze we had.
I do have Black Crowders up now and looking good. I grew Black Crowders last year and, like oldpea says, they put out runners of about four to six feet. The seed came from the local Farmer's Co-op.
I love Black Crowders, my favorite right now. I've got Big Boy, a farmerdilla recommendation, coming up. Also Zipper Cream and Lady Cream are up and two short rows of Calico Crowder, just planted, to try also. This is the first time I've tried the Calico and Big Boy.

Many southern peas will grow larger vines in good soil and or heavily fertilized. I grow in the poorest spots without additional fertilization so I get peas withot having to fight a mass of vines.
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Beautiful pictures! You're right, Farmerdilla. I've seen what happens when nitrogen fertilizer is used on peas- a big mass of bushes/vines and few peas. I try to plant mine on new ground, if possible. If I keep moving the garden a few rows up, it's going to end up in the road.
walkinggin,
Experimenting is part of the fun. You won't know `till you try something for yourself.

I secound the fertile soil bit. For me in red clay with probably above average soil fertility most peas planted 3ft apart between rows will meet in the center and will be thigh high. At my inlaws and parents were their soil is not as well amended as mine and is still redclay but the field variety with no irrigation their peas grow about half the size of mine but still produce ample amounts of peas probably equall to mine. I add no imputs to my ground for peas but I do plant crimson clover as a cover crop each fall and heavily mulch with hay so my soil is very loose and dark and I do irrigate so I get more than normal vine growth. Peas and other southern crops ( okra sweet potatoes etc) saved the south after the civil war. They grew and flourished in poor soil and in the years of drought. I have seen peas in a field at my inlaws down the road in red clay so dry and hard a pick was needed to make a hole produce several bushels of peas from just a few 100ft rows. The peas where only a foot tall and wide but where full of pods. Rodger

Wow! farmerdilla, those pictures are fabulous and the plants look so healthy and beautiful and the colors of the black crowder are really something to look forward to.

The funny thing about gardening is with each new, exciting discovery I start to have crazy ideas about reorganizing the garden to find more room for the NEW new thing.

Alas, I imagine "honey, would you help me hack back the cabernet vines and this orange tree? I need room for my cowpeas" would not go over very well! Luckily, the saner head generally prevails.