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Latin Name: Cajan cajanus

Days to Maturity: 90

Description:

These day-neutral pigeon peas will begin flowering at around 80-90 days and are highly tolerant of drought, heat, rain, and insects. The only thing that sometimes bothers them is root-knot nematodes. I can usually tell if this is happening by the plant being stunted in growth, producing few leaves and flowers. But this only ever happens to a few out of a population of about 100 plants. Also, in my location, a small pink or yellow caterpillar will bore into immature seed pods to eat the seeds. This damage is minor considering a single plant can produce several hundred seeds.

There is a good bit of diversity in this mix which contains different heights (4-7 ft), flower colors, plant stature (splayed or bunched stems), and seed pod lengths.

I planted late this year and these plants ended up only beginning to dry down when frost was threatening. They ended up going through two frosts before I cut the plants whole and let them further dry in a sheltered space before threshing them. I will have more information on how to do this if you plan on growing many plants. From around 100 plants, the yield was 11 lbs of dry seed.

The aroma and taste of these seeds is quite amazing. It smells of sweet almonds roasting and honey to me. It reminds me of summer. The taste is slightly beany with mild hints of these aromas. They go great in soups or eaten as a side dish on their own.

Give them anywhere between a foot or three of space between plants or plant them closer together in hedgerows. Beautiful yellow or yellow and red flowers.
Slightly larger seed packet due to lower germination rate, ~70%.