Vigna, Asparagus Bean, Cow Pea, Cowpea, Southern Pea, Yard Long Bean 'Whippoorwill'

Around 5 years ago I collected +/-100 of these peas while helping my grandma (Ann Greene) pick them in Dickson, TN (45 min west of Nashvi...Read Morelle). Since then they've been stored in a ziplock bag in my room. A week ago I included two rows of these in my first gardening attempt. I gave my grandma a call and she advised to sow whippoorwill peas on "the poorest soil you've got, or they'll go all to vines." I also called her later to ask what pests I should keep an eye out for, and she had no advice on that, but noted that no one grew whippoorwills anymore - they've all switched to purple-hulled - and she had to special order them "yearrrrrs" ago.

The planted peas sprouted within 2 days. After 2 weeks in morning and evening sun with no additional fertilization (manure and compost were tilled into the plot before planting) the plants are 4-8 inches tall, some plants have put up a second "tier" of stalk and leaves. Larger plants have no pest activity, but smaller plants on each end of the rows have had their leaves preyed upon (still trying to figure out by what).

The whippoorwill is an ancient cultivar of the southern pea(Vigna). It was once grown extensively for a hay crop much as northerners gre...Read Morew Canada field peas (Pisum). It could also be threshed out for dry peas. They are tiny compared to more modern cultivars like the many cultivars of Blackeye peas. In fact for table use, especially as green shell peas, blackeyes, purple hulls, and crowders are so much easy to shell and prepare. Whippoorwills are still available commeercially and are planted either for nostalgia in my case or as a summer green manure crop.

This is about the only bean I've been able to grow here in the Hill Country of Texas, where we have very alkaline soil and hot summers. ...Read MoreThe other beans wither away but these cowpeas just grow and grow and grow!

I'm growing the same seed from Melody.

I got seed from Melody, so it's the same line.

There are two versions of Whippoorwill, an older---grown previous to the Wa...Read Morer Between the States---and a younger---grown since then.

According to William Woys Weaver (to whom I sent some for identification), these are the older version, lending credence to the contention that they were grown by that family since the 1820.