To make a good vegetable or spinach, the leaves of the cowpea plant must be young and tender; the best leaves are about the third and fourth from the apical end of the shoots. Removing all the tender leaves three times at weekly intervals, starting four or six weeks after sowing (planting)
have no adverse effect on grain yields although flowering may be delayed. In crops grown for the seed, 10–20 % of the leaves are harvested before the start of flowering with little detrimental effect on the seed yield. Stronger defoliation (>40 %) increasingly reduces flowering, fruiting and seed yield.
Mature seeds are usually harvested by hand. Green pods are harvested when the seed is still immature, 12–15 days after flowering. Harvest of matured pods for dry seeds are usually done by removing matured pods individually as they ripen and are spread on the ground in the homestead to dry. In indeterminate maturing varieties, harvesting of matured pods is complicated by prolonged and uneven ripening; for some landraces harvesting may require up to seven rounds with three to four days intervals. The duration of the crop from sowing to harvesting depends largely on the growth habit, the rainfall and local husbandry practice but is seldom not more than five or six months.
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