EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY                       02/02/12

 PURPLE HULL PEAS         06/27/11

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Colorful and hardscrabble, the humble pink-eye purple hull pea has been elevated to a multicultural symbol of good luck and is even celebrated with its own Arkansas festival. 

The peas have been cultivated for thousands of years and today are perhaps best known in the south for being served in Hoppin’ John, a traditional New Year’s Day dish, and at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, for good luck. Each June, the pea is honored at the Purple Hull Pea Festival and World Championship Rotary Tiller Race in Emerson, Ark. This year’s festival is June 24-25.   

“Pink-eye purple hull peas are the survivor in the garden,” said Craig Andersen, horticulture extension specialist-vegetables with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. “They grow in poor, low-fertility soils, withstand heat and drought stress, and still produce a crop.” 

Andersen said the “pink eye” part refers to where the seed attached to the pod, and the purple hull comes from a pigment called anthocyananin, the same chemical that puts the purple in pansies and the blush in the cheeks of apples. 

“The truth is that the hull can be any color from a tan, to red or purple, and it does not determine the color of the peas,” he said, adding that the peas can be every color from white to black.  

“We call them Southern peas and others may call them cowpeas, but the botanical group they belong to is the species ‘Vigna’,” Andersen said. “This includes everything from crowder peas, lady peas, and black-eyed peas to long bean, asparagus bean to red ripper beans.”   

Peas have an advantage that helps them survive tough conditions. 

“Because the genus has a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria Rhizobium that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere for the plants to use, Vigna needs little nitrogen fertilizer, and is one of the most important sources of vegetable protein for humans around the world,” he said. “We rarely inoculate the peas with the Rhizobium bacteria, because they have been grown in the South for so long that most soils already have a population of the bacteria.” 

Black-eyed peas should be planted in a well-drained sandy loam soil. They do best if the soil pH is near 6.0 or above, with not much nitrogen fertilizer. Rhizobium bacteria in the soil will colonize the roots and provide nitrogen to the plant in exchange for carbohydrates from the plant.   

It is a warm-season plant that does best when soil temperatures are above 62 degrees.

Current dry spell pushing some landscape trees ‘over the edge’  

            A prolonged hot, dry spell may be pushing some landscape trees closer to their demise, said Jon Barry, extension forester for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

            Some trees have suffered through a string of dry summers even last year’s wet summer hadn’t done much to relieve the stress of the dry summers, Barry said. 

            “Many trees have already been damaged beyond repair,” he said. “A return to normal rainfall might prolong a stressed tree’s life a little, but many trees have already started dying and nothing will reverse that process.” 

            “For the last several years we have been getting calls about quite a few yard trees dying,” he said. “Most of these trees are large old trees that probably were under stress already, so a string of stressful years has given them that last shove over the edge.”

            Barry said yard trees face handicaps their wild cousins don’t.  

            “One of the reasons yard trees are so vulnerable to drought stress, is that they often do not have enough room to develop a good root system,” he said. “Houses, driveways, and sidewalks create dry zones in the soil.  

            “The few tree roots that might be in these dry zones cannot provide any water to the tree,” Barry said, adding that yard trees often have an abnormally large crown that creates a larger demand for water. 

            “The restricted volume of soil available for rooting reduces the water available to a tree that already has a king-size thirst, he said.

            The first of the 100-degree days started in June in some parts of Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service.  

            The drought stress is showing as some trees are turning their fall colors and shedding leaves. 

            “If leaf colors are changing as they would in the fall, and the leaves are dropping, that means the tree is going dormant,” Barry said.  “Normally they would do that in the fall in response to longer nights, but they will also go dormant due to drought stress.  Dropping leaves dramatically reduces water consumption.”

            Barry said that response also shuts down photosynthesis.

            “That means the tree may not make any more food this summer, unless it begins to rain and the tree puts out new leaves,” he said. “During the summer, food is normally made in the leaves and stored in the roots so the tree can produce new leaves and flowers next spring. 

            “Trees can usually survive one or two summers of going dormant early, but too many will kill the tree,” he said.

            According to The Arkansas Forestry Commission, the wildfire risk as of Wednesday was high in seven counties: Columbia, Hempstead, Lafayette, Miller, Nevada, Ouachita and Union; and moderate in 42 counties: Ashley, Chicot, Clark, Cleburne, Cleveland, Conway, Crawford, Dallas, Desha, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jefferson, Johnson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Little River, Logan, Montgomery, Perry, Pike, Polk, Pope, Pulaski Sharp, Randolph, Saline, Scott, Sebastian, Sevier, Van Buren, White and Yell counties.             The wildfire risk is low in the remaining counties.

            Burn bans have been declared in 20 counties: Ashley, Chicot, Columbia, Conway, Falkner, Fulton, Garland, Jefferson, Johnson, Lafayette, Monroe, Ouachita, Phillips, Polk, Pope, Prairie, Sharp, Searcy, Van Buren and White counties as prolonged hot weather continues to dry out trees and increase dry leaf litter.

            For information on efficiently watering your landscape, visit http://www.uaex.edu/pulaski/water_conservation/default.htm.  For information on forestry, visit www.uaex.edu, or contact your county extension office. Current burn ban and fire risk information is available from the Arkansas Forestry Commission at http://www.arkfireinfo.org/index.php?do:showWildFires.

arMY WORMS SPOTTED IN SEVIER COUNTY    07/21/10

A few reports of army worms have been reported in Northern Sevier County. 

If you find them in your field, County Extension Agent, Rex Herring, recommends using either 80% Seven Dust or liquid Seven or Mustang Max.