Butterfly Pea/ Clitoria ternatea

Optimal Temperature

The optimal growing temperature is between 65–85 °f or 18–30 °c.

It tolerates much higher temperatures even up to 105°f or 40°c or even higher. This makes it a very good plant for beginner gardeners.

When to start seeds?

You can start the seeds indoors about 6–8 weeks before the last frost date in your region.

Germination time is about 3–5 days. Soaking the seeds in water for a day before sowing further shortens it. I prefer to soak the beans and hard seeds in water before planting because you can see the changes in the seeds. The seeds that are going to germinate swell up. If there are still some hard seeds you can keep them in the water for a day or two more. Once you see the seeds changing cover them up in a wet cloth/ paper napkin to keep them moist until they sprout. 

Once sprouted the seedling grows rapidly so keep those stakes ready. I used this branch of Peachtree as support.

Soil Requirements for Butterfly Pea

Butterfly peas are not at all fussy plants. They tolerate all soil types. They grow in unused lands without any intervention. The optimal soil pH is between 5.5–8.9. To increase your chances of success you can make a good loamy starting mixture with equal parts of soil, compost, and sand/ perlite. Once the plants are well established then you can move them to the in-ground. After that, they require hardly any care.

If you plant the vine in-ground it grows much faster and produces abundant flowers.

In fact, it is a locally invasive vine and if left unattended it will fill up a lot of garden space. So you choose the spot to plant it accordingly as it will outgrow the neighboring plants.

Butterfly pea plants are drought tolerant.

I had these vines potted in two different pots. During the first year, these vines produced only a few flowers so last year which was the second year, I kept one of the pots slightly immersed in the ground. We went on a six-week-long vacation that summer. A few sprinklers took care of my garden during that period. But temperatures soared to the mid-forties during that time. The vines were watered twice a day that is very early in the morning and late evening but only for five minutes at a time. Despite the extreme temperatures, these vines stayed healthy and beautiful. Soon they loaded with tons of flowers. When I came back from the vacation, these unruly vines were standing out prominently among the rest of the suffering plants. Many bees, bumblebees, and several other pollinators were buzzing near it. The vine was so humongous that it was a difficult and time-consuming task to bring it inside. I decided to take a chance and left it out the whole winter. I underestimated Texas winter. I was hoping that the vine will come back to life as the temperatures rise but it died. I still have another vine potted so I don’t have to start over. But the lesson learned is that butterfly pea vines can take high temperatures but do not do well in freeze.

Let’s talk about fertilizers. I strictly use organic fertilizers and homemade compost for my plants. While preparing potting mix I add a mixture of blood meal and bone meal to the mix but despite that, the plants can have other deficiencies. For example, potassium deficiency in soil can prevent the plant from blooming. You can add good quality compost that includes banana peels or wood ash. I frequently use azomite which is volcanic ash. It is like a natural multivitamin for plants.