Cover Crop Series: Red Ripper Cowpeas

Red Ripper Cowpeas are a heat- and drought-tolerant legume. They are adapted to a range of soils and seem to be relatively pest free. Like all cowpeas, they can also be consumed by humans in the form of snap beans and dry beans. Red Rippers flower and make seed earlier than Iron and Clay and tend to act like a determinant variety. However, if conditions are ideal, they may continue vegetative production after flowering. Hard seed can occur, which may create problems with volunteer Red Rippers in subsequent warm-season cash crops. Seeding rate was 54 pounds per acre.

These plots were drill planted in 7.5 inch rows in a no-till seedbed on May 15, 2017, at the Noble Research Institute Headquarters Farm in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on a Heiden clay soil. Planting depth was about 1.5 inches, seed was placed on top of soil moisture and 2.33 inches of rain fell over the next three days. There was no fertilizer, insecticide or herbicide applied to this crop. Rainfall was below average after establishment.