Pigeon pea landrace

Adaptation Projects
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Anyone have experience growing pigeon peas and know if they readily out cross?

I’m obsessed with successfully growing pigeon peas here in Mallorca.
I planted two types last spring, the ones in my homegarden in Palma survived the winter just fine as it didnt freeze and are about to flower again. They gave just a few pods in january, so a very long season variety.
The same varieties I grew in my garden just 13km outside Palma where it froze just -2 celsius for a few nights and they died to the ground without making any pods.

For this season I’m stocked with lots more variaties, a few from florida and a grex from africa, a northern adapted and one that is supposed to be a 90 day variety.

I’m hoping this will be enough diversity to grow productive varieties, especially if the short season varieties will cross with the others.

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I’ve grown them as an annual last year from a mothers adapted variety. I kept the seeds and is mixing them this year with another northern adapted variety. They work well for me as an annual crop. I’m on the east coast of the US zone 5b/6a

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That’s great to hear, thank you!
How productive were they for you?

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Considering that last year was the worse drought ever and that I never watered them even once, pretty good!

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That’s what I like to hear! Drought tolerance is a highly desirable trait for me. :smiley:

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Hi Tanja,

Pigeon pea has been an invaluable pioneer plant for getting my food forest going here in florida, so I’ve planted lots and lots of it here. I started with a black, red, and a white variety, and saved seeds and replanted for a couple years, and a couple of the trees this year have peas that are white with a mottled brownish red color on them, so I don’t know if that means the white and red varieties crossed for those ones. They are the most vigorous trees, out of all the pigeon peas. I am happy to share seeds with you, as I have tons of seeds from it.

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I grew pigeon pea in Hawaii, and also in Taiwan. Both areas had their own unique varieties. It is a very popular species amongst the indigenous groups. Being that it is considered one of the top permaculture species I am also very interested in giving them a try here in Poland zone 7 climate as an annual.

If anybody has seeds available and is willing to share Id love to get connected!

Images are from a Hawaii Pigeon Pea that a friend is growing. If any of you have plans to go there let me know. I can get you connected with some plant nerds.

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Hawaii Pigeon Pea 1
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I have a diverse grex of pigeon peas flowering here in mallorca at the moment. When they form pods I can send you some. They are mostly black, purple, speckled, brown and orange types. Some northern adapted and others tropical. I grow them mostly in containers in palma where it doesnt freeze but it looks like i have some survivers sprouting back in the field this year too (where it is a little colder).

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Ooh, how pretty!

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I got some survivers from last winter that produced similar ones. I just harvested fresh seeds from them now and am happy to send you some.

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Yes please!! Ill sent you a message @Tanjaeskildsen. Thanks so much for keeping me in mind and taking the time to save these.

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I live in Puna in Hawai’i, and am very interested in finding or breeding pigeon peas adapted to my fairly wet corner of the island. I haven’t been as systematic as I’d like to be in regularly monitoring pods, but with most varieties I’ve grown, the seeds mold in the pods before fully maturing. Often they’ve gone bad even for eating green. I’ve found limas and lablabs to be much better for maturing on the vine, but I love pigeon pea as a woody, biomass-producing shrub, so I want to get a reliable seed ripening variety.

I’m growing several varieties from ECHO. “Black” has been nte most successful at drying down without molding…much. There are still enough moldy seeds that I feel I have to inspect each seed as I shell them…but maybe I could soak all the shelled peas in water, and float off bad ones? I don’t know much about processing pulses and haven’t yet experimented enough with the pigeon peas.

“ICPL 88034” Early Maturing also seems pretty resistant to molding. But the plants have been bred towards mechanized monocropping, with uniformly small and wimpy form, not great for biomass or acting as a trellis for vigorous vines. Both this and the Black have had some volunteers pop up around them, either truly self-seeded, or from seeds I’ve dropped when shelling some pods on the spot to check the moldiness inside. Either way, that easy establishment is very much a trait I want!

I just grasped the “vegetable versus pulse” distinction mentioned on ECHO’s Factors to Consider page. Two varieties I’m growing are supposed to be especially good for eating as immature green peas: “ICP 7035” and “Red”. I’ve checked some plants of some varieties haphazardly for harvest as immature pods, but hadn’t caught them at a size and quality that seemed very useful. But these two have sweeter and seemingly relatively large green seeds. Code Cove Farm writes of “Red” that they’re even good raw. And they discovered that boiling the immature pods and then shelling them is much easier than shelling first. Our Reds just started flowering, and I’m excited to try them green.

I’ve been planting the various varieties from ECHO with 150’ isolation, though a few months ago I designated and started planting an area for landracing. My ideal pigeon pea would have tasty sweet green peas, and dry down on the bush without molding, and be a sturdy 7’ shrub with good productivity for at least 3 years (and/or self-seed well.) Maybe I’ll need two different strains for green peas (which Code Cove Farms hypothesizes are prone to molding because of the succulence and sweetness) which need attention to harvest non-moldy mature seed when the weather cooperates; and a strain for pulses which doesn’t mold and self-seeds.

PROTA says “The flower structure of pigeon pea favours self-pollination, but up to 82% out-crossing has been recorded, depending on the presence and activity of pollinating insects.” Cody Cove says “Literature shows that pigeon pea can have higher crossing rates than other legumes, with estimates ranging from 10-40 percent.”

I’m happy to share seeds of isolated “Black” and “ICPL 88034”, and of random plants who may have crossed with others. In some months, I’ll be able to share Red, “ICP 7035”, and maybe others. My full-on tropical conditions and breeding goals are different from those of most people on this forum in colder climates, but my genetics may still be useful? Especially since I am growing a couple of varieties from ECHO bred for early yielding and management as annuals.

@eArthur - I see from your profile that you lived in or near Puna. If your plant nerd friends are on the Big Island, I’d love to be connected with them! (And maybe they want to come to the Seed Exchange tomorrow at La’akea!) Do you know if there are any other Hawai’i residents on this forum?

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Aloha Norris! E komo mai to the GTS community!

I am also relatively new here, and have not yet come across others from Hawaii, although I have been sharing about this space in other social media channels, including the Small Farm Hawaii SFH facebook group, where I am an admin, and also on the Homesteadn Hawaii group, where there are many people involved with seed saving, sharing, and selling. Are you on Facebook?

La’akea holds a special place in my heart because it is where I got my PDC. If there is any place to find mold resistant pigeon peas I would imagine that this would be a great place to inquire.

How long you been in Puna?

There are a lot of people coming to mind that you could reach out to throughout the island. One of the closest to you is Wade Bauer, who does edible landscape design. Between him and La’akea community you should be able to find locally adapted seed, or at the least get some leads on where to find it.

You can also check in with Amber Alohilani Woolsey and her partner Alva. They are in Kea’au, and have an excellent collection of plants. Alva makes a living in syntropic agroforestry work. They also support themselves and their kids by selling fruits, plants, and seeds.

Up Hamakua side the names that come to mind are Ginger John (Korean Natural Farmer, and owner of Sweet Cane Cafe), Narayan Higgins (Krishna Cow Sanctuary), Coconut Chris (Christopher Carter), and Spencer Willis who practices Syntropic Agroforestry.

Ginger John uses pigeon pea as a cover crop in preparation for planting his fields of turmeric. He grows a lot of it. Narayan very likely has some and is often willing to share plant materials. Coco Chris is an exceptional plant steward, and tends to have collections of some of the rarest plants. When I was working with him is when I took the photos of the very pretty ornamental pigeon peas posted above. Spencer works with a few “farms” I think, and surely has pigeon pea.

There are other names that come to mind too, but I think this should help you get started. If for some reason you still need more connections then don’t hesitate to reach out.

if your on facebook, make a post in the SFH group with a similar inquiry! It could be a great way to help spread the word about GTS in Hawaii, and get more of the community into this network, too. If the people I mentioned above got involved in what is happening here, then I think the Hawaii food growing community would find itself on track to solving a lot of wicked problems associated with farming in Hawaii.

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Thank you for sending the seeds! I was very excited to receive them. Crossing my fingers with hope that Ill be able to get them to grow and produce pods within this climate :crossed_fingers: :pray:

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Thanks for the reply! I’ve been in Puna for 12 years, and actually landed first at Wade’s. I know Spencer pretty well. They were both at the La’akea seed exchange. Spencer knows Alva and Amber well. Thanks for the other pointers! Another great plant resource is Zackary, who helped start the Kaui Food Forest and now lives in lower Puna.

I don’t use Facebook (too centralized and creepy), but a friend of mine posts on several groups, I believe including SFH, about monthly events I host at the Pahoa Urban Food Forest. Good to know you’re a link between that group and this community!

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Happy you received them! Good luck🙌🏻

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Im not sure you’ll be able to ship to europe but if you are I would love to grow out your varieties to see how they do here!

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I’m happy to try shipping to Europe. I assume you wouldn’t start growing til spring anyway, so it would make sense to wait a few months so that I can save seed from some varieties just flowering now. Message me about 6 weeks before when it makes sense for you to receive the seeds.

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Thank you so much! Ill send you a message in february.
Pigeon peas are starting to become weedy in my homegarden where it doesn’t freeze, which is exactly what I want from my vegetables👌🏻

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that’s good news. I had an envelope of quinoa grain sucessfull in crossing ocean and customs from US to france last winter, so let’s hope it works for these seeds.
@Tanjaeskildsen , If you succeed in growing them, would you agree to be seed steward for pigeon peas EU next year ???