Neither is hard to find. Way to late to plant them this year. They also don't have a long shelf life, one of those veggies where fresh seed is very important. I would suggest preparing your order in early January for next year. The latest that I can plant them is July. If you are new to cowpeas, I would suggest that you not start with those two. White Acre is a much more forgiving white pea. http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/vegetable/peas/peas_southern.html http://www.cooperseeds.com/pages/vegetables/Peas.html
http://www.newhopeseed.com/vegetable/cowpeas.htm http://www.willhiteseed.com/about.php

Farmerdilla, maybe that's my problem, I'm looking too soon for next year's seed. None of those links you posted have any seed available now. I'll try during the winter months and see if I can be more successful in finding some.

Not sure I understand what you mean by the White Acre being more forgiving? :) Everything I've read up to this point has been that all these cowpeas grow and produce like crazy, especially during hot, dry weather, of which we have a lot here in Oklahoma. Also I've read that Lady pea is very tender and makes great soup. I've grown black eye pea before and they grew really well. They were just out of a bag that I bought at the grocery store.

We just moved onto 1.6 acres after struggling to grow a decent garden in raised beds in the back yard in town for quite a few years. After getting spoiled by all the space out here I look at that little back yard and wonder how in the world I grew as much as I did.

I appreciate any advice you have to offer. Thanks -- Ilene

There is great variabily in the productiveness of cowpeas. Draw backs for Lady 1. It takes about a month longer than the average cowpea 2. It is very small, very tedious to shell green 3.Difficult to determine proper stage for green shell ( it goes from small to dry pea in the blink of an eye 4. Under my conditions, it comes in dead last in production( I grow Cal 46, Pinkeye purple hulls, Big Boys, Cream 40, Zipper,Purple Knuckle Hull, Black Crowder, Holstein, White Acre ...)It is best used a dried pea. White Acre while still a small pea is twice as large as Lady, has a pod color change similar to a blackeye and is relatively easy to judge proper harvest time for green shellies. While not competitive with Pinkeyes it is a good producer.
White Acre

Thanks, Farmerdilla. That was really informative. Great pictures, too. I appreciate your input. --Ilene

Thanks for the info on the cowpeas - this is a bit related...

Has anyone else experienced massive ant colonies in their beans/peas? I have stopped growing Black-eyed peas, Red Noodle Beans, Purple hulls, etc. because of the ants that farm aphids on them. After endless battles with daily spraying soapy water, then resorting to various poisons (not too toxic - sevin and an "organic") I finally ripped out the red noodle beans which were literally farms - the number of ants was amazing - long trails of them coming from outside the garden and marching between my raised beds to arrive at the food court in the bean bed...

I love cowpeas - but haven't a clue how to keep the ants out. The ants defend the beans - I keep getting bit. And the aphids eventually kill off the beans.

Now that I've removed the cowpea-related plants, I am still having ant problems - they are eating my snap beans and pole beans - they eat the tips off where the flower joins just as the baby bean emerges. I'm at a loss...

Any ideas for either how to grow the cowpeas next year or actually harvest more than a handful of beans this fall? What will make the ants leave? (I watched these ants kill earthworms in the soil!)

Thanks,
Cindy

I use Malathion for the aphids on cowpeas. No aphids the ants leave. Some years aphids are not a problem, but every so often they comes in hordes. If you build up a good population of Ladybugs it will help.

Could not find aphids on my Red Ripper cowpeas, but there are ants and small wasps on them. The wasps are about 3/4 inch long, yellow and black. They light on the ends of the bloom stalks and explore the tips. Maybe the cowpea emits chemicals to attract predators to remove pests from the cowpea.

Thank you for the response Farmerdilla and HappyDay...

I did have a pretty good crop of ladybugs earlier in the year. Then I watched ants attack lady bugs... Interesting about the wasps - I had some small beneficial type wasps - very tiny. They were feeding on the onion flowers I left hoping to attract more good bugs.

Later in the season when aphids were thick and ants were thicker, the yellow jackets were trying to drink aphid juice and the ants were stinging the yellow jackets who were hovering over the beans.

That's when I couldn't take it anymore and pulled out the red noodle beans - I should have filmed it first - it looked like a horror movie... LOL!

There aren't any aphids in my bush beans - but the ants are there in significant quantities still... :-(

I grew a few red noodle beans in my greenhouse, not a great success but will get enough seed off them to try them again. The pretzel beans were a bust, only one bean.

An interesting thing about the chinese red noodle beans they turned out to be a paper wasp magnet, mine still have paper wasps crawling around of them, can't see any aphids or other insects on the beans, it's a good thing these wasps aren't aggressive.
Does anyone know the relationship between this wasp and this particular bean? The wasps didn't go near the pretzel beans.

Annette

Hoards of yellow jackets swarm my cowpea vines. It's amazing to see. They are after a sweet sap which exudes from nodes of the plants, if I am correct. I'm able to move around the pea patch and harvest the pods without being attacked by the wasps, so I don't mind.

Luckily, aphids are not a factor in my garden.

Jim

Annette, cowpeas have what are called extrafloral nectaries which attract various wasps, ants and other insects

Happy, thanks for those references, I will be planting them in the greenhouse again next year, mine didn't start flowering until about the middle of August. I planted four seeds just to see if it was doable. We couldn't grow this one outside here but I think I can plant enough for a meal or two in the greenhouse.

Annette

My Red Rippers flowered in the middle of August also, although they set pods quickly and should finish seed. But then, I planted late. Next year I'll plant very early and see if it makes a difference in DTM.

By the way, your Mr. Tungs raced to the finish and I picked the last bean a few days ago. Planted just 12 plants and harvested 2.64 pounds of nearly dried seed, just weighed the full colander. This is the best bean since the Ma Williams!

farmerdilla, You said it's relatively easy to judge proper harvest time for green shellies on White Acre peas. Could you describe what they look like when ready to harvest green? This is my first year growing any type of cowpea, and no one in my family or friends has ever grown them before either, so I'm having a hard time getting first-hand experience. I picked several pods while green--some were tiny and terribly difficult to open. Some were just right, but they looked very similar to me. Now I see some of the pods turning white--does that mean they're not "green" anymore but are ready to harvest? Would love any info you care to give :) Thanks!

Correct the pods began to lose the green color and will feel leathery to the touch.