Peas seed source N Texas...purple hulls,etc

[Dewayne mater]

I'm looking to plant from seed for purple hull peas, crowder peas, or cream peas, and have not had luck finding seeds. I live near DFW airport and I understand they can still be started this year (though I'm sure it is very late). Any suggestions for where to find them would be appreciated.

I grew up eating these all summer long, then put them up for the winter. They are awesome when well prepared and are very nutritious too. You can still get them at farmers markets and I plan to do that. I'm just wanting to try of few of them in my small suburban garden. Thanks for your help.

[Amigatec]

I can get them in Muskogee.

[Dewayne mater]

Amigatec: Where? A feed and seed store or what? Nurseries in the city don't carry them, so I'm figuring I'll need to head to a bit more rural areas. Fine by me, if I know I can get what I'm looking for. Help, please!

[sfmathews]

Try the feed and seed stores. There's one in Garland that I frequent that carries a bunch of 'em.
Good luck!

[Amigatec]

The place I get them is from a produce market that also sells seed.

[dhrtx]

I bought purple hulls at a nearby Ace hardware that sells quite a few plants and some bulk seeds. I would look through the phone book and call small hardware stores. Some of them in the area are bound to carry seeds. Surely you should not have to go farther than Weatherford/Denton/Cleburne

[Innoma]

Here's a couple sources for cowpeas, crowders, etc. I've had good luck ordering from any one of them:

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
[Filed under Peas > Southern (Cow) Peas]

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
[Filed under Cowpeas]

Willhite Seed
[Filed under Peas > Southern]

[Suze]

Dewayne - like others said, I would check out feed or hardware stores. I even sometimes see them at better nurseries, at least in my area. Probably more likely to find them at feed stores, though. Victory Seeds might be another source you'd want to consider for mail order in addition to the ones previously listed by Innoma (but, edit - they seem to be sold out of several varieties for this year.)

It's definitely not too late to start. I would think any time between late April - early July should be fine for the metroplex. Recommended sowing dates for my area are early April - mid July. I think early Apr might be a little cool, even here - just my opinion. They really do seem to prefer warm soil and heat.

Timing-wise, I've found southern peas to be a great rotation with garlic, as there are few things I can start here in June that will take the heat and thrive after I harvest my garlic in May. When early Nov rolls around, I can use that area again for the next garlic planting.

[beck3465]

Thanks Innoma for the sources. Ordered three different varieties from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange..... I love southern peas!!!
Becky

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks, I just got some purple hulls in the mail from Baker Creek yesterday! I'm hoping its not too muddy to plant them today after a bunch of rain yesterday in DFW. Right after I ordered, I heard that Roach Feed and Seed in Garland had them from fellow tvillian sfmatthews, so if you are in DFW, go get em.

Suze: this is my first time to grow peas and so far, I can't find much about how to grow them. Are there any dangers, traps, stupid things to avoid in your experience? To me most important thing is that they not kill my Indian Stripe and Brandywine plants that they will share a raised bed with. E.G. will peas attract insects, disease, other pests? Thanks much!

[Suze]

If you are actually interplanting these between your tomato plants (?), one thing that comes to mind is possible crowding for both the toms and peas or maybe the peas not getting enough sun. If you do something like this, just make sure the exposure is excellent. IOW, don't put 'em on the north side of your tomatoes ...

If they are just sharing a part of the bed and won't actually be planted between taller tom plants, hopefully the areas left in those beds (or bed) aren't in a corner of the yard or somewhere where they will get shaded by the tom plants much of the day.

Southern peas will grow in poor soil (they can fix nitrogen), and can even help improve a soil for you. Some people grow them as a cover crop. They don't like wet feet, so don't overwater. Any place you've got to plant them where the sun is good and the drainage is decent will do, raised bed or not. They are one of the easiest vegetables to grow here in Texas that I know of.

Pest/disease - Stink bugs like them, and can sometimes do a bit of damage to the peas (seed) inside the pods, but then that is the case with any legume here if the stink bugs decide to invade your yard and you don't then take steps to keep the population down. Haven't found it to be a major problem myself. There may be other possible pests/diseases, but that is about the only one I've ever personally seen on or around them.

One I like to grow is Zipper Cream and can send you (Dewayne) a few seeds if you'd like to try it too - PM me with address if so.

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks much for all the great info! They will actually be growing about a foot in front of the outmost branches of some tomatoes in the southern edge of a southern facing bed. I don't know how big they'll get, but hopefully that is enough space.

I'm not going to fertilize them, but the soil has all been amended with lots of compost, so hopefully that won't be too rich for them. I have never had stink bug issues with toms, but that may just be luck. I'll keep a watchful eye, since I've read they can do a lot of damage quickly, but their isn't much that can be done about them, is there? (what is up with all the "buts" in this post? gonna change my name to "qaulified answer man")

Thanks for the generous offer of zipper cream seeds, but I went ahead and used all the remaining space we have for purple hulls. Too bad! I love the cream peas that I've always heard called "lady cream" peas, but I have never seen seeds with that name. I wonder if that is just creams picked earlier? My three favs are creams, purple hulls and the elusive "crowder" peas which were sold out at the places I looked this year.

On a side note, for this easy job, I got my 6 year old boy out their poking holes in the ground, droping in seeds, covering and watering in. I'm trying to establish an interest with the kiddos in dirt work to keep them from spending all their time in front of the computer or tv!