Cowpea · Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom
When to plant cowpeas in Milton Keynes
Main outdoor window
1-22 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
17 April
In Milton Keynes, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
10 Jul - 9 Aug
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Milton Keynes
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
1-22 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
10 Jul - 9 Aug
Cowpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Milton Keynes
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost once soil is genuinely warm. Cowpeas grow fast enough in heat to be sown as a second crop after an early harvest.
Tender at 0C, with no useful frost tolerance at either end.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Cowpeas are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Milton Keynes.
The median frost-free season here is 215 days, against 70 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Milton Keynes
Other grains to time
Growing cowpeas in Milton Keynes
When should I plant cowpeas in Milton Keynes?
Aim for 1-22 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 18 May - 8 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will cowpeas be ready to harvest in Milton Keynes?
Expect to start picking around 10 Jul - 9 Aug, based on 70 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will cowpeas tolerate?
Tender at 0C, with no useful frost tolerance at either end.