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Vegetable growing guide
Chavli, or cowpea, is a fast, heat-loving legume grown for tender pods, green seeds and dry pulses. Sow it into warm soil, go easy on nitrogen and start picking pods about six weeks after sowing.
Mix the seed with Rhizobium culture just before sowing, especially on ground where cowpea has not grown before; TNAU uses 600 g of culture for a hectare's seed. Choose a vegetable variety for tender pods (TNAU lists CO 2, VBN 2, Pusa Komal, PKM 1 and Arka Garima) or a grain variety for dry pulses.
Not needed. Cowpea seed takes up water readily.
Not needed. Cowpea is a tropical crop that needs warmth, not cold.
Not needed. Sow dry seed into moist soil and water straight after sowing.
Sow only once the soil is above 18 °C (65 °F) and frost is past. In laboratory tests cowpea germinated best at about 30-35 °C (86-95 °F), gave the most normal seedlings at 25-35 °C (77-95 °F), germinated more slowly at 20 °C and produced abnormal seedlings at 40 °C (104 °F). Chavli cannot tolerate cold.
2-2.5 cm (0.75-1 in).
Well-drained soil rich in organic matter; TNAU works in farmyard manure before sowing.
TNAU irrigates immediately after sowing, again on the third day and then once a week. Rainfed crops are sown at the start of the monsoon.
No light is needed for germination. Grow in full sun.
Seedlings come up quickly in warm, moist soil; in cooler soil emergence is slower and less even.
Not used. Sow directly: TNAU dibbles seed on both sides of ridges or in lines on beds at 45 x 15 cm (18 x 6 in). Texas A&M spaces seeds 5-15 cm (2-6 in) apart on 90-105 cm (36-42 in) beds, depending on variety.
Keep the crop weeded for the first month. Bush types need no support. Climbing yardlong bean is a different subspecies with its own guide.
TNAU applies farmyard manure with a small amount of nitrogen and phosphorus, split into fortnightly doses, plus zinc sulphate and borax on deficient soils.
Tender pods are ready 40-50 days after sowing and the crop lasts 75-90 days. Frequent picking keeps plants producing.
For dry chavli, leave pods until they dry on the plant, then thresh and dry the seed fully before storing it cool and dry.
As a short legume, chavli fits between cereal crops; TNAU grows it as an intercrop between rows of pearl millet.
Sow chavli in warm weather for tender pods within about six weeks.
In June-July for a rainfed crop or February-March with irrigation, as long as the soil is warm (above 18 °C).
Both are Vigna unguiculata, but yardlong bean is a climbing subspecies grown for very long pods. Chavli is the bush or semi-spreading cowpea; yardlong bean has its own guide.
Usually too much nitrogen. Cowpea fixes its own nitrogen with Rhizobium; feed lightly and avoid heavy nitrogen top-dressings.
