80% of the cucumbers I have sown on the 15th (2 days ago) have germinated and also the Okra WOW ... so fast !
Tomatoes outside are growing well.
I have started to hardening off in my back porch peppers and eggplants.
ZONE 8 - SPRING season 2012
We planted our peas today! We planted both Wando and Alaska. The Alaska's are old, so it'll be interesting to see if they do anything. The radishes are up and I saw one carrot sprout today. Yippee!! I think we're planting pole beans tomorrow!
WOW ... I don't understand how you can grow PEAS now ... I never had good luck with them. You must have a super green thumb !
Keep posting pictures of your peas, please!
Will do! The pic I posted is of my radishes, but when the peas sprout, I'll post a pic for you. :)
Quote from drthor :
WOW ... I don't understand how you can grow PEAS now ... I never had good luck with them. You must have a super green thumb
Me neither. All the green peas I've been able to grow stopped flowering and producing new pods as soon as the daytime temperatures got into the 80's. Here in Florida (and in Georgia), that doesn't leave much of a season between the last hard freeze and the heat. Starting in March the only peas grown here are Vignas (cowpeas).
I'm also interested to hear how they do.
-Rich
Rich
Are purple hull peas considered "cow peas")? I was given some purple hull peas to plant and I'm not sure I know what to do with them. I've only tried growing sugar snap peas and snow peas both with dismal results. I'm going to try them again this year, both on a trellis like I have in the past..
Yes, they fall in the southern pea category. They are black-eyed peas and grow about 12"-18" tall. They either need to be grown between two closely spaced cattle panels or on some kind of support. The first time I grew them, we didn't know that and it was a pain to pick them.
They're also a pain to shell. When my dad was a traveling salesman (he only traveled by car) and I was a young sprout, he would stop at a roadside vegetable stand in the summer and buy several pounds of purple hull peas. By the time he arrived home after driving sixty to a hundred miles, he'd have all of peas shelled having left his car window open so he could toss the hulls out the window as he shelled them. He held the pan for the peas in his lap and steered the car with his knees. My mom liked when he did this it since all she had to do was cook them and makes a pan of cornbread to go with them. Life was so much simpler back then. My childhood memories of eating purple hull peas were what made me think to ask the farmer I met for some seeds.
My dad also helped me become an entrepreneur when I was still a sprout. At the same vegetable stand he would buy huge watermelons and bring them home. I would put 2 in my little red wagon (they were so huge that’s all it would hold) and I would pull my wagon around the neighborhood selling watermelons for $0.25 each. I never knew for sure if I was a great salesman or if my dad would call our neighbors and ask them to buy a watermelon from me, because I don’t remember anyone ever turning me down. The best part was that I never paid my dad for the cost of the watermelons so every sale was pure profit for me.
Hrp,
When I was a kid, we had a gadget with a pea-pod sized hole that had
a handle that held a razor blade. To use, you just pulled the black-eye or purple-hull through the hole. The tough skin was sliced open and you could easily shell the peas by running your thumb down the slit. My mom pressure canned the peas we grew.
David
David
What do you think about "Mr. Pea Sheller"?
http://www.lawn-gardening-tools.com/pea-sheller-and-bean-shellers/mr-pea-sheller-and-bean-sheller---pea-sheller.html
Quote from dreaves :
Hrp,
When I was a kid, we had a gadget with a pea-pod sized hole that had
a handle that held a razor blade. To use, you just pulled the black-eye or purple-hull through the hole.
Pea shellers are still available. Several different makes/models. Search on "pea sheller". Most are under $40.
e.g:
http://www.amazon.com/Lees-Manufacturing-600R-Pea-Sheller/dp/B000BTATUG
http://lawn-gardening-tools.com/pea-sheller-and-bean-shellers--pea-bean-sheller.html
hrp50
Last year I did grow for the first time COW PEAS ... I didn't have a clue on what to expect.
I was looking for a vine variety to grow around my A frame swing.
I grew:
http://rareseeds.com/vegetablesa-c/cowpeas/california-blackeye-pea.html
http://rareseeds.com/vegetablesa-c/cowpeas/monkey-tail-cowpea.html
The plants grew really well and beautiful.
Lots of leaves in the summer ... with our record 100 F degrees days and almost no water.
I kept cutting the vines to fed my DH pets.
All of a sudden at the end of August ,beginning of September lots of pods started to form.
I harvested them when they were tender and ate them like green beans ... I have no patience to shell them ...
They were just delish and full of good vitamins.
I will grow them again this year.
Look at those runner beans growing ... weee
They are 6" tall already ... in less than 4 days !!!
Cucumbers all germinated ... even the extra seeds ... bummer ... now I will have to kill some ...
Squash half germinated and Okra on its way
Peppers and Eggplants hardening off on my back porch.
The wind is blowing like a missile today.
Tonight those babies will need to come indoor. 59F forecast.
My tomatoes are growing really well and making flowers.
Most of the plants are touching the top of the plastic cover.
Soon I will need to remove the PVC hoop house ...
But for now ... the wind is blowing too high and the plastic is really protecting those plants.
I did fertilized them yesterday with 1tbsp of BAT GUANO each plant
This message was edited Mar 19, 2012 10:01 AM
@HRP,
I found the Mr Pea Sheller last night, when I started looking for the sheller we used when I was a kid. I have one of the hand-cranked shellers on order. We will see how it works!
David
We planted our bean seeds yesterday. Hope they don't float away in the expected heavy rains coming our way. On a positive note, I have carrot seeds sprouting!!
Quote from dreaves :
I found the Mr Pea Sheller last night, when I started looking for the sheller we used when I was a kid. I have one of the hand-cranked shellers on order. We will see how it works!
I ordered one today, too. I'm planning cowpeas (aka Southern Peas) and edamame, so hopefully it will be worth the price. Either that or I'll use it as a conversation piece on the living room table. ;o)
-Rich
I was thinking to use those COW PEAS as a decorative vine in my front yard landscape, just like a potato vine ...
The vine was so green all summer long ... I think it'd be really nice in this way
Decorative, pecdorative, drthor. Cowpeas are made for eating, maybe secondarily for decoration. If you don't eat your cowpeas, send them to me and I'll shell them with my handy dandy Mr Pea Sheller and eat them.
:(
They don't grow tall enough to be decorative.
If you want a vine, look at the hyacinth bean vine.
Dont argue with a man that has a "handy dandy Mr Pea Sheller" lol
stephanietx
the Cowpeas I grew last year were very long vines
@Lisa... it's another one of those "manly" gadgets. I had to order one myself as soon as I decided to grow purplehull peas!
David
But yeah, you were too manly-man to order one that uses a power drill to turn the crank. You bought one that you have to crank by hand. I bought the girly-mon version that you don't have to expend any effort to turn it. My dad will probably turn over in his grave when he finds out I'm not shelling peas by hand like he taught me when I was a boy..
HRP--
I may make one of the blade cutter versions just to demonstrate to my daughters. I can't find the plastic-handle hull cutter online except as a historical item on EBay.
To make a sheller, it is easy to drill a hole, 3/8" or 1/2" in a small block of wood, Then, tap an Exacto-knife blade into the side of the block, into the hole, so that the tip is exposed inside the hole. Cut or break the excess blade off the block. When you push/pull the pea through the hole, the blade tip slices the pea hull, making it easy to run a thumb down the hull and shell the peas. That's how we shelled peas for years (but later used the store-bought plastic version.)
David
"Girlie 'Mon" version! LOL!
I have started to harden off my peppers and eggplants ...
Last night I brought them inside and left them in the family room.
Could you tell me which kind of bug did this to my pepper leaves?
well... I cannot keep y'all waiting.
It was Bronto ... grrrrr ... bad kitty !!
My peppers have fruits
Lettuce is growing too
rjoden I have six kitties now in the house. My DH brought me home two new ones, they are identical twins ... he said:"go in the bedroom and you will find a surprise ..."
All my kitties are well behave (no jumping or breaking stuff) and they all like different things ... I am glad that only one likes to chew on plant leaves.
He has a plant that he chews once in a while - he likes pointy leaves ...
Pallina likes to eat vegetables,Torchy likes popcorn, Nemo is food aggressive and he steals gnam-gnam from the other kitties, the new twins, Pupa and Truffles, so far just play with each other and they are full of love ... and with that face ... sooo cute
I forgot ... last year Bronto sat on op of my just emergency seedlings ... I think because he felt the warmth of the heating mat ...
Anyway ... they are so cute !
My newest kitty that we adopted was named Torchy by the rescue group. We changed her name to Daisy. She doesn't respond to anything! LOL
I have started from seeds indoor:
basil
amaranth
malabar spinach
I am hardening off some runner beans.
I have prepared a new area to grow beans ... I found the net at Lowes and I just attached to my fence. Why not?
It is a new area for me. There are sprinklers in the other side of the fence, and I am sure that the soil will be wet enough for the beans.
My tomatoes are growing really well.
I have secured cages around them and I still keep the perforated plastic in case of high wind.
Quote from drthor :
I forgot ... last year Bronto sat on op of my just emergency seedlings ... I think because he felt the warmth of the heating mat ...
I think you may be reading too much into it. In my experience, cats do things just for the sake of doing them. Anything new in the house, my cats have to climb on / jump in / try to play with. I count myself fortunate neither of them feels compelled to taste everything, though Sid does have a little chewing problem. There are a LOT of plastic plant tags around here with teeth marks, and if I'm not careful to put them away, I will find them in the oddest places (kitchen, bathroom, sofa). He thinks everything is a toy.
-Rich