Luke’s Pigeon Pea – Good Biomass Variety

In 2023 we grew roughly 10 varieties of pigeon pea to evaluate. This variety has turned out to be the most durable, drought tolerant and vigorous of all of them. The plants have had high survival rates past year one and continue to grow, while other varieties have slowly petered out. For those seeking pigeon pea for soil improvement, animal forage or other agroforestry purposes, this is a great variety that produces a lot of biomass. Nematode resistance may play a role in the longevity of this variety. The peas are astringent and not a good high quality fresh pea, but the beans dry down very well. The drying pods can even be rained on once or twice with very low incidence of mold, the opposite of what we see with good fresh eating types such as “Sweet Red”. We suspect that this is a grain cultivar. It is highly productive of pods, making it a great choice as a dry bean crop.

This variety originally came from our friend Luke at Green Planet Farm, which specializes in sugarcane and some other crops. Check out Green Planet Farm to see what Luke is up to.

30 seeds

Cajanus cajan