The cultivation used zero tillage (no form of soil disturbance except during planting)

Varieties planted:
1. FUAMPEA 2
Rough to near smooth seed coat,
Brown color with brown hilium,
Medium seed size, Indeterminate
Medium maturing (70–75 days)
Short cooking time
Resistant to Striga.
Good for intercropping
Sudan, and Northern Guinea ecology loving.
Known as Honey beans number 1

2. Ife Bimpe
Mutant of Ife Brown (earliest honey beans)
Alias Branching Peduncle Cowpea
Late maturing (80-85days)
Semi Erect and uniform
maturity,
Pods held above the canopy.
Derived Savanna and Forest Zones loving
Sweeter and known well to older generation


Welcome on board........

Total land areas was divided into units.

Unit A
Entirely FUAMPEA 2

Land preparation:
Bush clearing was done and residuals was stocked up

Seed dressing: seed was dressed with Nodumax legume innoculant (consists majorly of rhizobium), a type of bacteria that attach themselves to the roots of legumes and help them to convert the nitrogen in air to fertilizer.

Planting:
Seeds were planted two seeds per hole at 50 by 25cm spacing

Chemical application:
Glyphosate with isopropylamine salt was used as preemergence at the rate of 200ml in 16 litres of water using knapsack sprayer (1 load). It is systemic and would have to be absorbed by the weed plants' parts to work irrespective of whether leaf is present or absent in as much the parts are alive, unlike paraquat,therefore as they die slowly, the crops thrive

Disadvantages
Glyphosate reduces the number of rhizobium present in soil, if the rate applied is much to cause damage, cowpea may have a bad start. This was the reason the seeds were pretreated with nodumax

Planting date:
Usually cowpea is planted in South west on or before the 15th August as the crop must be fully established before the end of the rain but climate change is here

Mid September was chosen because the varieties planted are not photoperiod sensitive meaning, the length of daylight does not affect their fruiting. Some varieties of cowpea and soybeans will begin to fruit in November irrespective of when planted.

Reason for mid September
1.Local weather has been tracked for some weeks. Good days of sunlight, rainy towards night and not too heavy. Cowpea is sun loving and require minimal but adequate water

2. Prevention of excessive vegetative growth
Excess vegetative growth gives poor seed sizes. Therefore, less likely to occur this period as rainy days are coming to an end gradually.

3. The varieties planted are semi erect (does not crawl much at all) , and seed carried over the canopy and not creeping.

FUAMPEA 2

Ife Bimpe

Land preparation: UNIT A

Planting operation: UNIT A

Seeds have begun germinating as at today. They were planted on 11th September.

Unit B

Land preparation
Also zero tillage. No bush clearing at all.

Chemical application:
Double knockout system

A. Systemic herbicide: Glyphosate with isopropylamine salt

B. Contact herbicide: Paraquat dichloride

C. Preemergence: Butachlor (tolerated by rice and legumes)

Rate: 200ml of A + 10ml of B + 100g of C in 16 litres of water using knapsack sprayer (1 load)

Contact herbicides must be applied with care in double knockout system. Systemic herbicides need parts that are alive to be absorbed and effective and contact herbicides kill those parts. The essence of the system is to provide a wide range weed control especially in areas where different weed types are found and also to provide a rapid killer effect from the outside to the inside as different weeds are sensitive to different herbicides.

Butachlor brand used

Glyphosate brand used

This part sprayed 3days ago

Spraying continued today

Planting to be done tomorrow right inside the dying bush tomorrow

Nodumax

Dawson126:
The cultivation used zero tillage (no form of soil disturbance except during planting)

Varieties planted:
1. FUAMPEA 2
Rough to near smooth seed coat,
Brown color with brown helium,
Medium seed size, Indeterminate
Medium maturing (70–75 days)
Short cooking time
Resistant to Striga.
Good for intercropping
Sudan, and Northern Guinea ecology loving.
Known as Honey beans number 1

2. Ife Bimpe
Mutant of Ife Brown (earliest honey beans)
Alias Branching Peduncle Cowpea
Late maturing (80-85days)
Semi Erect and uniform
maturity,
Pods held above the canopy.
Derived Savanna and Forest Zones loving
Sweeter and known well to older generation


Welcome on board........

So it's possible to plant honeybeans number 1 here in the southwest?

IamAsiri:


So it's possible to plant honeybeans number 1 here in the southwest?

Yes sir. But let see how it goes. What were once impossible are becoming possible now. Agriculture has really advanced sir.

I was on farm today to see how well the cowpeas were doing. Weed was a major challenge on Farm A and we have started weeding today to complete that soon and on Farm B, while the weeds had been great reduced, the beans are coming up but will need proper weeding this month. Manual weeding is majorly done in cowpea as its selective herbicides are majorly on trial and scarce.

Weeded area

More

Farm B

How are diseases that affect beans prevented? How soon can spraying of crops start?
I'm interested in farming beans soon.

NOGRUDGES:
How are diseases that affect beans prevented? How soon can spraying of crops start?
I'm interested in farming beans soon.

I will give a breakdown of the diseases soon but I think one should worry about pest infestation and control as in, if you're planting in the south, and also climate manipulation. I will you post some pictures here and necessary manipulations you might need. I have not applied insecticides and we're planning even once or organic

The beans must have good amount of leaves now. Any update?

Stephenmoka4:
The beans must have good amount of leaves now. Any update?

Your post reminded me now that I've got some pictures on my phone I took from the farm. I think FUAMPEA 2 is worth all the hype after all. We have not sprayed the beans yet and we haven't had any serious issues so far with pests

I am having challenges posting pictures now. I will do, once it goes through

Pics

More. These pictures were taken close to two weeks now

About the diseases that affect beans

There are quite a lot of diseases that affect beans usually most come as a result of primary infestation or damage caused by insect pests. And these insects were the majorly challenges encountered in cowpea cultivation in the south of Nigeria primarily because the load of them were found naturally there. Therefore, proper pest management equals a lower disease load

Things you have to note is that beans is very susceptible to fungal and nematodal attacks, therefore the land you want to use could be a place where deep feeders e. g cassava have been planted or shallow feeders e.g cereals have been cultivated.

Places which have been used for vegetables production including tomatoes, potatoes, pepper, groundnut are not suitable for beans cultivation without not properly checked and treated for fungi and nematodes.

Beans cultivation is not also encouraged for monoculture over a farmland without thorough understanding of its mechanism

About the insect pests infestation

Planting early maturing varieties is good and those varieties with good characteristics of resistance to pest infestations is good.
Segmenting your farm too is good for example of you check your capital and time, instead of cultivation 2 or more hectares on a single farmland, you could plant them in acres on different farmlands in the same location. Try to do away with alternative hosts (crops) around you farm, examples include those ones mentioned in disease management. Crop wey still better na cassava, insects no dey worry am much,na wetin dey mainly around my farm segments be that, most of farms around are done with their crops, so mainly cassava is available as residual crop

Throughout my stay in the agric school at the university, my field exposure, I still haven't seen cowpea varieties with stronghead against insect pests as FUAMPEA 2. Milk beans coupled with some still dey try.

One of my bosses I respect so much planted SAMPEA 31-32 thereabouts and Ife Brown, she spent lot of money and effort in wadding off insects wey dey chop her beans last month beans wey still never dey flower o, if dem con start to they flower n ko? Although I tried to convince her about the FUAMPEA but her reason still stood on, the beans was made for the north and core north where rain is minimal. Although I had not had experience of the variety so o couldn't convince her further.

Now let's talk about the soil type and soil fertility for cowpea (beans)

1. Cowpea enjoys well drained Sandy loam soil. That kind soil wey dey good for maize. You don't need nitrogen fertilizer as such except places with issues with rhizobium (check up for its work). In fact, cultivating it with fertilizer will reduce its own ability for make nitrogen for itself. If you use fertilizer with nitrogen, the leaves will be much (check previous post for disadvantages) , it will crawl well and no go produce on time. If you wan sell the leaves to livestock farmers, abeg go ahead.

2. Beans is very very sensitive to aluminum. In fact it is toxic to beans. This is the reason beans don't do well in heavy and clay soil. Sometimes last month, a friend came to market on fertilizer product, although it was good and would give a good result but what turned we off was the fact that most of chelates of the fertilizer were aluminum ions based (please forget the chemistry) , I just explained to him why I couldn't use it.

3. Problem of beans is adequate phosphorus. If your soil have issues with phosphorus, common for most south soil (1 reason north dey alright for beans) (please forget the chemistry) , you might need to supplement it especially for farmland that has been cultivated before or many times. When this is important mostly is during that time wey hin won dey produce. SUPA fertilizer is well recommended.

We will look at water, rainfall, temperature and sunlight effects next time. I'm sorry, I need to rest small, I had a hectic day