Conch Cowpea

A rare heirloom variety! Save your seeds! My favorite "navy bean" with small white beans. The conch pea has a vigorous, vining habit: When planted at intervals of 3 meters, the vines and prolific leaves quickly meet up, covering the soil and preventing the growth of weeds, and also promoting the development of a healthy, moist humus layer. Cowpeas are an easy to grow summer cover crop and need no attention outside of harvesting the dry beans over summer once established. I have found that they will inevitably end up carpeted in aphids but the plant does NOT need your help. They will not succumb to them and it just serves to attract beneficial insects to your garden so they already call it home by the time you plant your fall garden. They are nitrogen fixers as well but once you start harvesting beans that's where all the nitrogen goes so if that is your goal it is best to plant Iron Clay Cowpea which has delayed fruit set and is used in my summer cover crop blend for that reason.

Packet: ~30 seeds

Good to start from seed in these months:

North Florida: June-July

Central Florida: March-August

South Florida: April-August