VIGNA: BEAN-SNAKE WITH LARGE STREAMS

I love beans for a long time, tenderly and, it seems, mutually. At least, the asparagus beans never left me without a crop, sometimes even the neighbors had to distribute. And how many delicious dishes can be made from it! Therefore, having learned about the variety of beans with meter-long pods, I, how to put it mildly, became interested.

And I found out that this mega-beans, called cowpea, can be considered a relative of common beans (they belong to the same legume family). But the relationship is not close, these are two genera - Phaseolus L. and Vigna Savi. Beans can be called both, as cauliflower and kohlrabi are considered cabbage, despite their very different appearance. But on the other hand, this means that the cowpea cannot get dusty with the beans.

WHEN I STUDYED AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING of an unfamiliar culture, I encountered conflicting information. Someone considered cowpea a whimsical and thermophilic culture with tough and tasteless pods. And someone, on the contrary, gave up the usual asparagus beans for the sake of cowpea. Go figure it out! I was sure of one thing: the cowpea is a plant designed for a long growing season. She also does not like shady and windy areas. So it is ideal to grow it in a greenhouse. That's just where to get so much space, because the manufacturer honestly warns about the height of the vine - 3, 5-3, 8 m! For the experiment, I decided to try to grow cowpea in the open field, having abundantly filled the garden with semi-ripe compost. When decomposing, it (theoretically) should generate heat and thereby warm up the root and root zone, which is especially important in spring.

ALL YOU NEED FOR THIS ARTICLE IS HERE >>>

That year I got hold of the Countess cowpea seeds. I got it - because there was no such exotic in the stores, I had to negotiate to bring it to order. The seeds turned out to be black, smooth and medium-sized, about 1 cm long. Only in the first year the plants were very unlucky with the weather. The spring was not the warmest, and I waited a long time for the ground to warm up to the required 15-17 °. Hour "X" came on May 22. Sowed with dry seeds, and then suddenly the heat came.

The thermometer rose to 35 ° and higher during the day. The soil dried out despite regular watering and mulching. Well I have allocated the wigne the warmest and sunniest bed, and even with underground compost heating! The lower leaves turned yellow, the stunted lashes stretched up the support. They have not grown to the 3, 5 m declared by the manufacturer. There were no buds.

I fed the plants several times with a superphosphate extract. It should stimulate the growth of the root system. As a result, the beans got stronger and nevertheless blossomed, beans began to tie and grow. Of course, it was difficult to call these single pods a harvest. As thick as a simple pencil, they have reached a length of quite decent 50-60 cm. Perhaps they would have grown even more, but I did not overexpose them. If overripe, they will become rough and uneasy. But I still left a couple of pods for seeds - they grew up to 80 cm. Young beans have a bright green color. I used them in stews and soups, cut them into 3 cm pieces, and froze some of them for the winter, after scalding them with boiling water. Vigna was tasty and soft. So the overall culture was promising. It remains to find a suitable agricultural technology for her. And above all - to extend the growing season.

Vigna Vegetable. We sow Vignu on Seedlings.

FOR THE NEXT SEASON I bought the seeds of the same Countess, and even my friend shared the seeds of some mysterious "Chinese cowpea". I sowed them for seedlings at the same time as cucumbers. Before sowing, I arranged a 20-minute bath for the seeds with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate, then washed it thoroughly and, wrapped it in a damp cloth, left it in a warm room. I unrolled it daily and washed it under running water to prevent acidification. Soon the seeds were picked. The germination rate was excellent.

I sowed two in peat pots (I read that the cowpea does not like trauma to the root system). For sowing, I mixed garden soil, mature compost and peat in a 1: 1: 1 ratio, and added washed sand for looseness. When the seedlings rose, the one that turned out to be weaker was cut off with nail scissors.

Well, in May she planted a cowpea in a greenhouse on the northern side of the beds, and planted pepper in its "legs". It is short and won't shade too much. And in terms of moisture-loving, these crops are quite comparable.

I made holes at a distance of 20 × 35 cm, filled with abundant compost. Unlike other legumes, cowpea needs to quickly grow a lot of tops, therefore it is very demanding on nutrition.

When planting plants, I did not deepen the root collar. After planting, she watered and mulched with hay. During the season, the plants were fed with a complex mineral fertilizer with microelements and fermented mullein.

She planted the cowpea in the open field, literally a few bushes. And the summer turned out to be hot. The temperature in the greenhouse sometimes reached 40-45 °. Beans grew by leaps and bounds, and in the ground too. To prevent the plants from roasting completely, I arranged for them automatic watering. Vigna bloomed in mid-July, and after a week and a half I began to harvest.

The bushes were inspected every 3 days so that the beans, which looked like thin long snakes, did not overripe. They need to be processed quickly, they are poorly stored, they become sluggish. Last year, the harvest was quite decent - and filled the freezer with blanks, and in the summer they ate plenty. I made the blanks simply: I washed the pods, cut them into pieces of about 3 cm, boiled them in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, threw them into a colander so that the liquid would glass, and the beans would cool down, and freeze them in portions. And in the winter I sometimes fried with onions, cutting them into cubes. So at first no one guessed what kind of vegetable this was so unusual! As a side dish, vigna is great - both tasty and healthy.

It bore fruit until frost, did not hurt at all. I tore out bushes with flowers. And yet, in spite of the warmth, I will probably grow cowpea in the future. Its young beans are both more tender and, perhaps, tastier than regular asparagus beans. Although in a warmer climate, this culture, of course, will be more comfortable.

Reference by topic: Vigna asparagus beans - planting and care: my tips and secrets

VIGNA - CULTIVATION EXPERIENCE AND VIDEO REVIEWS

VIGNA - CHINESE BEANS. My cultivation experience

ORDER QUALITY AND CHEAP SEEDS AND OTHER PRODUCTS FOR HOME AND COTTAGE. PRICES ARE BOTTLE. CHECKED! JUST LOOK FOR YOURSELF AND BE AMAZED. THERE ARE REVIEWS. GO >>>

Below other entries on the topic "Dacha and garden - with their own hands"

Subscribe to updates in our groups and share.

Let's be friends!

Dacha with their own hands > Encyclopedia of garden plants > Vigna - growing in a greenhouse and open field, planting and caring for megaphases

Comment

Marina Kirsanova, Ulyanovsk
17/03/2023 (16:38) #

Last year we bought cowpea seeds of three varieties. In May, five seedling bushes were planted in a greenhouse, seven - in open ground. A warm place was taken by the terrace, the rope was pulled up to the roof. They were waiting for the harvest.
The plants near the terrace were the first to die: the neighbor's dog got tangled in the rope, uprooted everything and trampled it.
It didn’t work out in the greenhouse either - the plants grew barely, although they fed, watered, there was enough light and heat. It turned out that the fault was the ants, who had arranged their dwellings under the roots. We fought, but it was too late. This year we will continue the experiment with cowpea. We are ready to fight the ants, and the neighbors have moved to another house, along with the dog.