# Miracle in Progress



## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I have some black eyes and cream peas that are turning yellow, don't know if it's a moisture problem or lack of fertilizer. Anyway I squirted a bottle of Miracle Gro on them yesterday and got .10" of rain this morning. I will take some after pictures in a few days to see if anything happened. 

While I am at it I will tell the story of the cream pea seeds---Believe it or Not.
I was talking to my cousin ( he's a lot older than I am ) about my bad luck with cream peas and he said we have some seed you need to try. His wife's dad grew them every year in Pearsall and they saved seeds from year to year, since 1960 or thereabouts. I did the math, that's fifty six years ago. They harvested and put seeds up every year from the same variety every year. I don't know when her dad passed away but her mother kept growing them in her little garden way after his death and saved the seeds. A few years back her mother decided it was time to sell her house and get an apartment at an elderly only facility. When they were moving her they found several jars of pea seeds in the frig that I believe were dated 1998, I wish I still had the letter she wrote me to be accurate. Well, they were several years old and my cousin's wife said what the heck we will take them home and maybe plant some. She told me every dang one came up and she started over where her mom left off, saving seeds year to year. She sent me three pint jars of seed last year and I planted two rows with one jar and I swear they all came up. I hope she can keep hers growing because I have bad luck when it comes to cream peas. The cream peas are the two rows on the left and grass out the ***.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

I'd say to much water. I've never fertilized peas. You will sometimes see this yellow effect in your yard after a lot of rain.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Nitrogen*

I over fertilized Black Eye's one year and all I got was bushes, waist high and no blooms. I didn't put anything on these and I plant them in the same place every year, had a good purple hull crop last fall. It does stay wet there even with little rain.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

It could be a number of things. Crop rotation, root rot, planting in soil that doesn't drain well. I have always thought that peas add nitrogen to the ground, so I've never fertilized my pea crop.
I always add nutrients to my crops & till in before planting. Depending on what crop it is I'll mixs some Fish Emulsion with water and poor that on the plants every now and again.
Then for my fall crop I just plant. Add fish emulsion every now & again.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I have used Medina before, smelled like fish.


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## Paul Marx (Nov 13, 2009)

I need to look into this Fish Emulsion stuff . Can you buy it in large bottles ?


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

Quart size at big box stores, prob could get bigger online


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

My dad always uses trip 13 on all his, he don't in the fall tho, claims it will help deer find them. One fall he didn't fertilize and the deer didn't bother them, every other yr they did, he hasn't did it in the fall since..


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Lots of water this year and peas don't like too much water. I haven't planted any yet and probably won't for another two or three weeks .... Just too wet and cool here. 

Cow peas are probably the easiest to keep and store the longest lived of any seeds I keep. I use more peas for cover crop than anything else...for soil building and weed control and nematode prevention and crop rotation and so on. They are truly one of the best garden tools I have. I'd be lost without peas.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

I'm gonna pull the onions & plant one row of okra.Then till the other two rows flat and kinda just broadcast cream peas all over that area. Is that how you do it lark? 
The 4 beds with the taters I can just plant a row of cream peas & that will cover those beds to keep the weeds out, Least it worked last year.


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## jm423 (Sep 18, 2011)

Wado, if it's not too wet, I would scratch around those peas with a cultivator/ rake or get real industrious and use a hoe (although I have trouble finding a hoe handle that fits my hand--LOL). Or run the middles with a tiller then do what you can around the plants. Methinks those peas need air to the root system.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Cultivator*

Pretty sure you are right this clay like soil packs bad. I have a Stihl cultivator I use it's getting the ambition to do it that's the problem.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Miracle Gro Update*

Well, I applied the liquid on the first and took these pictures today. Last Tuesday I got out and ran the cultivator as close as I could to the peas and called it good. I think we had .10 rain so Friday I shot some water on everything. I still see some yellow leaves on the peas but the squash cleared up. Don't know if the fertilizer helped or it finally warmed up and got the water regulated somewhat. Might get some groceries after all.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Waldo I finally got my weeds out. I hate weeds but you gotta get them somewhat controlled. I had a great harvest on my onions & taters but my maters aren't looking that great & the cutworms are cutting my squash plants off at ground level.
Not to concerned about squash because I've never done very good with it anyway. However I did sprinkle some oyster shell around the stems hoping that works & fertilized my maters. I'll be bummed if my mater crop fails. Guess, that's just the way it goes. Win some & loose some.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I cannot get this grass knocked down. It is impossible to control unless I use herbicide and that usually ends up with an unhappy ending. I used to run the cultivator through the corn twice a season and the dang grass seed blows in from all over and it comes up. I just let it go and pour the water to it when it gets dry. I did bring my snake boots home from the ranch but from the looks of it I might need chaps too. I have a few tomatoes but my Big Boys aren't doing worth a flip, nothing bust bushes and they were planted March 23. They never made the low fruits like all the rest have, I guess it's been too cool. I have a friend that planted his Celebrity's two weeks before me that already has ripe fruit, just not very big ones.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

I'm going this way next year.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

Rubberback said:


> Waldo I finally got my weeds out. I hate weeds but you gotta get them somewhat controlled. I had a great harvest on my onions & taters but my maters aren't looking that great & the cutworms are cutting my squash plants off at ground level.
> Not to concerned about squash because I've never done very good with it anyway. However I did sprinkle some oyster shell around the stems hoping that works & fertilized my maters. I'll be bummed if my mater crop fails. Guess, that's just the way it goes. Win some & loose some.


Cut worms hit me too Randy.1st 3 plants in one row were laying flat yesterday.I sprayed that new stuff we ordered from Amazon for squash bugs and it seems to be working except for the cut worms.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Good corn growing weather...and peas and okra...just arrived here this week. That garden corn is something I look forward to every year. 

Bet the ear worms will be bad this year....but heck its well worth it to get that fresh corn. 

Your corn is about two to three weeks ahead of my first batch. Just planted my fourth crop this week....looking for continuous corn all the way to frost.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Mucho Agua*

I ran the tiller between the peas Sunday ahead of the deluges we received the last couple of days and glad I did. The peas started running and I spotted blooms this morning, might pull it off if this next rain episode doesn't finish me off.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Lady Cream Peas*

The peas survived and made a little bit. The row of Black Eye's that stay wet all the time turned yellow and I finally mowed them down after one picking. I just picked the Cream's yesterday and you have to get those things a little on the dry side or they are a nightmare to shell. My old pea sheller worked on the Black Eye's but not the Cream Peas. We got almost a half inch of rain this morning so maybe they will bloom again and I will get some more.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Great update!

That sheller looks like it has been to more than a few rodeos.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Sheller*

That is a genuine Conco Engineering Works Pea Sheller from no telling when. It looked just like the pictures when I was about ten years old so it must have been made in the forties, I think my Dad cranked it when he was a kid. It will spit Blackeye's out if they are just right but the cream peas have too tough of a shell, just smashes them. I also have in my possession a butter churn you crank by hand and have eaten butter made in it. It has two wooden flukes that are turned by a ring and pinion gear in the lid that mounts to a one gallon glass jar. I still have one of the butter molds that we used also. My Grandfather raised bees and would only eat real butter with his cornbread and honey, of course the churn was put away the older they got but it had to be butter. I remember one time my Great Aunt made butter by just putting cream in a jar and rolling it back and forth on the kitchen table and returning it to a bowl of ice every few minutes and then back to rolling the jar. In a bit you had butter, amazing. Put a dash of salt in it and find a biscuit.


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