The Ideal Summer Cover Crop for the Desert?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- Finding the ideal cover crop for desert environments can be challenging. Today we're giving you 5 reasons for growing cowpeas as a summer cover crop in Arizona or similar climates.
Support the channel for free by starting your Amazon shopping here!
www.amazon.com...
*As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through this link*
Check out our Healthy Farm Living Channel here;
/ @healthyfarmliving
Connect with us on our website here;
www.edgeofnowh...
Homestead Essentials - Nesting Boxes
The BEST nesting boxes that hold up well and actually keep eggs clean. Use this link for 10% off your first purchase!
www.homesteade...
#covercrop
#cowpea
#desertfarmer
#azgardening
#eonfarm
Cowpeas are one of my preferred cover crops. The hotter it gets, the better they do!
Glad we're not the only ones who love this plant for the heat!
I think I'm going to go for this. Sounds good for the chickens
It does grow really well, but are you planning on letting them munch on the plants themselves during the growing season? If so, they'll probably dig them right out and/or eat the leaves and kill the plants. We let ours into some of our growing areas at the end of the season and they completely dig these up as they're scratching.
Super. Good to learn this. 29 Palms here we will likely hit 120 with an average Summer temp of 111...
Thank you for this
This should do really well for you. We have had success planting this all summer long. Just added a few beds of it 2 weeks ago at the peak of our record stretch of days over 110 and they are coming in nice and strong.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thats crazy good news and cant wait to jump on this. I can really appreciate what your saying here. Love your channel cuz I just gave up for years trying to grow in the desert. So many variables, lol.
This entire channel is great. Whats super great also, that I appreciate, is that you guys show results. Good or bad, you guys show it and that saves me so much time and resources. So many channels are so spoofy. Untrue. Like they grow these huge plants like bell peppers in 6" pots. I did that and got 2" bells. 😂
Oh Boy! Idk how you'd pull off full blown peppers in that tiny pot. 😂 Im so jealous of your fruit trees. They gorgeous!
You two Rock On! May God continue to bless you, Lori and all your good works..💖
Im putting everythin in the ground now...
@@diannebartkus9893 Hearing this is why we keep up with posting. We're all in the same boat trying to make a go of it in the desert and we're hoping to save a few headaches (and checkbooks!) by sharing the good and bad.
Thanks for the information. This is my second year in the desert and I may try cowpeas next summer. I wish my family liked to eat these more.
Hey Kathy. You can't go wrong with this crop in the spring/summer here in AZ. They do need irrigation to get through the heat, but the advantages to having these on your property are just hard to pass up!
Hey Duane.. Arizona have same climate as "Rajasthan" In India best trick to grow anything is built green net structure with high density green net comes in different capacities to filter sunlight buy as per your local climate.. I recommend you to built with low height to save money and lower maintenance just for growing own food not as business purpose
Try if can buy cluster bean seeds specially heirloom variety they are damm delicious😋 once you ate you will add it to daily diet .. I eat it freshly by roasting in little oil and sprinkle tiny salt
Thanks for the suggestion here Vikas. It sounds like you have some experience with this.
I have not tried cluster beans before, but chances are good we can grow it here if you're having success with it there.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm yes safer side you can grow few plants as experiment.. Do you have any poultry birds..?
@@Realatmx yes, we have chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys on the farm right now.
Such great video! We've been having drought wave in Poland and I'm really concerded, because planted lots of new plants, like raspberries, which struggle in such weather. I also have 1 type of peas and 2 types of beans in my garden, but never thought to combine them in one plot. Need to experiment with the shorter one
Hello in Poland! Wow, I imagine it doesn't take much for you guys to be in a drought situation. It's normal for us to have drought, so we are prepared for it. It's much more difficult when you don't see it as often. Your beans should still do fine for you as they are a very common crop for us in the desert. We can plant them well into the Summer and they do just fine.
short, to the point, perfect. I'll be buying them for sure.
You can't go wrong with this one Anthony.
Thank you for the information
Sure thing Kenn!
Short and sweet with great information. Thanks!
Thanks C Clark! Glad you liked that, they really have done a great this summer.
I will give a recipe "s" for the cowpea you have and I hope you will like it
I noticed you have the short ones but anyway here it is
fresh green coriander, chopped
olive oil
garlic
salt
prep: cut the cowpeas into about an 3/4 of an inch
heat the oil on medium and put the garlic
add the cowpea
15 min then add the coriander, leave it on low 5 min and it's ready
I usually eat it with pita bread
you can use the same recipe for fava beans or just the regular green beans like Jade, Maxibel, Contender, Bush Lake Bush Beans
=====
there is another recipe
olive oil
green beans cut into 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch
garlic
onion
tomato fresh or canned cubes/ diced
tomato paste 2tbs , be generous
salt to taste/desire
chop the onions into wings or dice it
crush the garlic into creamy paste using a mortar
fry the onion and garlic on high heat half way so they are not cooked then add the tomato paste, stir it so won't stay clumpy
add the tomato
when you sit boiling the turn the heat down to medium low
add the beans and mix well , cover and let simmer
it takes about 30 to 40 min unless you like it crunchy
same thing, with flat mediterranean bread
the second recipe goes for all green beans and cowpeas long or short
best results when eaten cold out the fridge
--
all the best
Wow, thank you so much for the information and recipes. We're still fairly new to cooking with cowpeas, so this has us excited to try something new!
Fried cowpeas! A must in Asian cooking.
Cowpeas are the only pulse that will produce a cro and leave a lot of nitrogen in the soil. the closest, I think, to them is mesquite. I have yori cahui (a red) and they're great. They set a lot of beans in sun or shade, and then start all over again. Keep up the great work!
Hey Martin. I'm thinking you're right with incorporating the cowpeas in stir fry. With the sweet potato greens in full swing we could combine both with a bit of thinly sliced pork and have a great meal.
Great info, I’ll have to try growing them next summer and thank you for sharing.
You can't go wrong with this one Daniel. If we had the time to figure out how to keep the quail from eating all the new shoots, we would have these in our tree rings as well. I'm not sure if you face the same bird pressure, but if not it would be a good addition to your food forest.
Loved all the information.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you will try this here in NM this year
Hey Grace! They did fantastic for us this summer, should do great for you as well.
Just planted cowpeas the other day in my Coolidge AZ backyard. I have new construction so I started with cardboard, soil & wood chips hoping for success with the no till method. Hopefully between the the cow peas and I'll be planting footlong beans also it will do wonders with my soil
Hey Veronica! Great choice on cow peas for your newly establishing growing plot. We have these planted in several spots again this year and they really do wonders for the soil. Finger crossed you'll see the same (or better) success!
How'd the cow peas do? I need to try the cardboard-soil-mulch method on top of thousands of weeds and billions of weed seeds. Wondering if the cow peas root through the cardboard in a couple mos and if by then the weeds will be terminated-?
Love your channel-have been totally binge watching during these past few weeks of soaring temperatures! I have yet to get cowpeas to grow much past the first couple of sets of leaves. I am perplexed, because they have a great reputation for being prolific here in the AZ desert. Germination not usually a problem, but they certainly do not thrive. Thoughts? Thank you for all of the amazing content you put out for all of us to learn and grow with you!
Glad you're enjoying the content and making a go of things here in the desert. I can't say we've done anything too special with these, but they do much better with softer soil. While the in-ground plantings do ok, the ones you see in the raised beds fare much better. You may need to amend the soil near the planting sight a bit. Also, they do get watered daily during the summer months.
Excellent video
Thank you Abid! Glad you enjoyed it:)
Thanks for the info! 🤗! Have you tried to grow fava been? That’s a great nitrogen capturer too. It grows on fall.
Great question Sol and we have not grown fava before! It's not a mainstay of our diet, but adding a nitrogen fixer like that in the Fall would be a great option for the Fall garden beds.
I found this and wanted to share with you. I planted a few of them and got a very abundant tomato harvest, I also eat the leaves 🍃 in salads, when they were tender 🤗 ua-cam.com/video/ObAUwDHkT_U/v-deo.html
Countdown to the livestream today. I think you're the first I've seen to consider cowpeas edible... most rule out the beans as too small to justify the effort. How are they when cooked?
Hey Allan! Glad to see you on the livestream. It's always good to have familiar faces on there. Lori is going to film us making our Red Beans and Rice recipe with cowpeas replacing the red beans over the next few weeks. You'll have to check that out once we get that up on the other channel.
Hi Duane and Lori! Someone suggested that I should plant these as well as sweet potatoes as covering for my fruit trees. I am a little hesitant to do so as I am worried about fertilizing the trees and the coverings being an obstacle. Do you have any thoughts/recommendations?
Hey Rana! Thanks for joining us on livestream. Definitely the cowpeas, you can let them grow and then cut them off leaving the roots/nitrogen in the soil. I would not recommend sweet potatoes, they will be competing with the tree for one and then when you harvest the sweet potatoes you will be digging up tree roots. Remember, we can only grow annual veggies when they're irrigated. This means you're growing them right there with the fruit trees and they will compete with those roots. Small rooted annuals like cowpeas are one thing. Deep rooted plants like sweet potatoes are something quite different. That being said, if you can grow the sweet potatoes adjacent to the fruit trees (not in the same irrigation ring), you would have a great ground cover.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Oh no! I've planted sweet potatoes at the base of 3 of my trees 😬. I've been very happy with how well they've held up to our summer heat but have been a little concerned about the issues you just mentioned, possibly competing for moisture and nutrients and how I'm going to dig them up without disturbing the roots of my tree. Of the 3 trees only one is not doing well which is a mulberry. I thought it was strange since mulberries tend to do so well here. I was wondering about planting cowpeas, I'll definitely switch to them when I can and ditch the sweet potatoes! Thanks for the advice!
I did sweet potatoes but the were 6'+ away from the trees, we left for the summer and they climbed the mature peach tree, but they did a awesome job of cooling the soil, I have wifi, soil moisture and temps so I can twerk my watering, I don't use sweet potatoes anymore, re they are a whitefly magnet, graduated to cowpeas, flax, mung beans, and what ever reseeds from the cool weather cover, but it is mostly between the fruiting trees, in the garden areas both raised and inground it's cowpeas, sunflowers, sunhemp, that get chopped down end of Sept, they do a good job of cooling, keeping the soil cooler, we are midway Phoenix, Tucson. Great soil builders too.
Way to sell the green beans therein the outtakes. LOL. We have been thinking about cow peas for the 40 in Willcox As ground cover. Problem is gotta fence it in before i can. This do to open range, Other wise would just be feeding the bovine!
Hey guys! Yeah, raw green beans, when you can't taste anything is just a bad combo! One thing about these guys is the quail, rabbits and yes definitely cattle will tear the newly sprouted beans to shreds. If you can get around that, they are truly an amazing cover crop for us.
Nice to see green in the desert. do you grow tomatoes, zucchini and watermelon in the winter spring and fall?
Hey C J. We do grow tomatoes and zucchini in both Spring and Fall. Watermelons are a summer time crop for us.
Hello, I have watched through most all of your videos and I am curious about some thing. Are you tempted to put wood chip dressing under the places you "spill" water onto the ground? These places include the wildlife water dish, the "bird Bath" that the bees drink out of , where you dump your chicken coop water and so on. I just discovered your channel and have watched most all of them by now and I really love how you put these together. Thanks for all you do!
Hey Donald, that is a great question/suggestion and yes we do have plans to incorporate more woodchips around the farm. We haven't taken the time to do so around the water tanks, but it wouldn't hurt to have them around it.
We did cow peas first time s last year just don't like the daily picking.but once we got enough to can it sold us.
I have to agree, they're a pain to harvest (especially during the peak of Summer!), but they are a great little bean for a lot of our recipes and they do wonders for the soil!
Have you ever thought about using mushrooms with your cover crops ? Help with the soil health
Great question Stephen and we're kicking around the idea, at least in the winter when it's easier to maintain the moisture. We have volunteers throughout the woodchips, but a dedicated crop would be really cool to see in the desert!
Great information! I will not be eating raw cowpeas. TFS
Great choice Cindy! There was a viewer that posted a couple of recipes for them, we will have to try it.
Duane, thank you so much for this information!
Do cow peas go dormant, look like they are dead, in the winter, in AZ? Like sweet potato vines?
Hey Franswa, great question. The cowpeas should die back completely in the winter (assuming we get cold enough!). They're technically a spring crop, but they have the rare ability to survive (and even thrive) in our hot summers.
Thanks Duane! What variety do you recommend for our neck of the woods?
@@franswa529 we purchased ours on Amazon from Outsidepride and I'm not exactly sure what variety they are. I'll attach a link here to the one we purchased;
amzn.to/3jJQVeI
Thank you thank you!
What varieties are the most drought tolerant? Just bought some land in northern AZ and have no water setup yet. Hoping to rely on the monsoons.
I would plant any of the cowpea varieties and see how they fare. We have planted them all Summer long and they do well for us, so I imagine if you time it right and we get a solid monsoon season you may find they work well for you also.
Know you guys have a massive rabbit problem but have you thought about planting peas or beans in in your fruit tree circles?
That is a very good question/suggestion. We would like to try cowpeas in the tree rings, but we're finding it's very hard to get the new shoots to survive the massive quail population we have out here. They just decimate the newly sprouted cowpeas. If we can figure out a way to get around that we'll definitely add them to the rings. That being said, if you're not facing those same obstacles, this would be a FANTASTIC crop to add into your irrigation rings around your trees.
What would you do if you did not have wood chips. Not many countries have them...like us in dry south Africa??
Hey there Carol. We have folks a bit further out here who are facing the same issue. They're using either straw or hay as mulch. Any of your larger grasses will work as mulch also. Sudangrass (sorghum), corn, etc have stalks that work well. Smaller tree branches and leaves will also do the trick.
D - don't you want to put some big nitrogen fixing trees like some acacia species in your garden?
Great question and yes, we will incorporate more nitrogen fixing trees in the future. This first rush of planting was to get the fruit producers in the ground, so we would have a yield from them as quickly as possible. Once we expand the irrigation it will include a few nitrogen fixers, particularly Moringa as it is a very good livestock fodder that creates a tremendous amount of biomass each year. We also have a few mesquites on the back acreage, but we don't have plans to include them in the irrigated areas.
Hi I was wondering if you have ever let your meat chickens in your tractor eat the cowpea crop ?
Great question and we didn't get a chance to let them into the cowpea area of the pasture. We were focused on trying to get the whole pastured covered this round and never needed that space.
Which variety of cowpea is that?
Hey Stephen! We used the Outsidepride Cowpeas;
amzn.to/3BJSqje
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thanks! I was going to ask the same question!
I have heard that cow peas are a great cover to keep weeds at bay. Is this true?
Hey Jim, great question. I would say it's very good weed suppressing cover crop. Left to vine on the ground it shades out just about everything.
Are the leaves of calpea edible?
Hey Vincent! We have never tried the leaves, but from what I understand is that the young tender leaves are edible and used in vegetable dishes.
does this suppress weeds?
That's a great question and I can only assume so. We don't get much in the way of weeds around here during the Summer when these are growing strong, but nothing was coming up in the beds alongside these.
How often do you water it?
Hey RC. We water our summer beds once/day in the early morning hours for about 20 minutes with the drip tape. TBH, you could probably reduce that quite a bit once they're this size.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Yes it seems like a lot of water.
You're saying here in Az but that's a wide span of climate. Where are you referring to?
We're just outside of Phoenix.
He said it really takes off when temps exceed 100°