I'm not growing it, but I am familiar with pigeon pea because the wife of my friend, who is Puerto Rican, cooks it with rice. That apparently is a popular Puerto Rican dish. In Spanish, they are called gandules.

It would be nice to have perennial beans, something which is impossible here.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Arroz Con Gandules

Izzybelle
Pigeon pea is quite easy to grow. I used to grow pigeon peas and also bought my seeds from Echo which by the way is a reputable nursery. I grew about five trees ,kept the peas frozen and ate pigeon peas the whole year. It's best to cook the green pigeon peas with a little sugar for better taste. Enjoy your pigeon peas!!

Maureen, how often does the "tree" produce peas? I saw the "tree" from a distance--my sister's neighbor's tree. It was quite huge and hanging over her fence. She told my sister that it produces seeds once or twice a year. Any info you could give me regarding size and harvest? Thank you!

izzybelle:
This is my first visit to this forum and your title caught my eye. I grew up in the tropics where pigeon peas are a staple, cooked with rice and in other dishes. I was visiting in Feb. and planted some seeds for my sister. The tree will grow to about 5 feet and will give you about 2 harvests a year. We ususally had one near Christmas, because they were used in a Christmas dish. About 5 trees will provide enough for a family of four. You will find them delicious green or dry.
Northerner.

Izzy
Northerner is right. The tree blossoms 2x year. I'm still eating pigeon peas from December's harvest. I sold my house with all the trees, but save some seeds that I planted in the new yard for harvesting in December. Pigeon pea tree makes pretty flowers too

I've only experienced pigeon peas from eating them, probably from a can of the Goya ones. Never saw the 'tree' and never realized they are perennial. Thanks for hipping me to something new. Now I will seek out more information on pigeon peas.

Jim

Thank you so much Northerner and Maureen! I was wondering though, if you harvest the beans the same way as any other dry bean when saving it. I take it that the yield is great as Maureen stated in that she is still eating pigeon peas from December. Interestingly, the "tree" that I had a glimpse of was hanging over (like a weeping willow) a 5 foot fence. Either some things grow bigger here in Hawaii or my sister's neighbor has perhaps a different variety. --Speaking of which, I recall reading that if you try to grow the pigeon pea that is sold packaged dry; that you will have a variety that is not perennial...
Jimster, I'd eaten the Gondule beans with rice before but I had not known about it growing here in Hawaii. Went round and round trying to find the dry beans. As dry beans, my experience is that it is a firm bean like soybeans when cooked with a slight resemblance to the taste of boiled peanuts (salt was added to the water when cooking). Anyway, just thought I would mention that the vining varieties of lima beans are supposed to be perenials in warm climates also. I haven't tried them yet. Again, thank you so much for all of your (all of you) advice and effort to help me along.
--Lee Ann

if he's filipino and his tree is that large and he protects it like it is growing gold, ensure it is not a Kalamunguy tree.

If you want to cook dry beans with rice, all you have to do is let the beans dry off the tree before you harvest them

I am in Austin, TX. and have 6 -5 foot trees or bushes, They were planted earley in March, they are bluming now. I hopr that they will make oeas before freeze. How much colt will they stand??
Bobby

I am in Austin, TX. and have 6 -5 foot trees or bushes, They were planted early in March, they are bluming now. I hope that they will make peas before freeze. How much cold will they stand??
Bobby

If you have picture of the plant and the pod, please post it.I would like to know if the pigeon pea and the legume variety known as Tur or Tuver are same or simillar.

I grew them very successfully in Palm Bay, FL. I started some some here in NC back in Feb (hot house) and set them out in April. They are now over 8 Ft tall and look like they will bloom shortly. Hope they produce before the freeze kills them. Anyway, fun to grow.

For bgreen65 in Austin, and others who may be interested,

ICRISAT, below, is tasked to be the global center for pigeon peas. They have excellent daylength neutral varieties and can clue you in to which US universities might hold stocks of the same for distribution : USDA Washington-Pullman might be a center for grain legumes.

Anyway , am giving you a contact for their germplasm resource specialist, Dr. Hari Upadhyaya.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), P.O. Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

Hari D. Upadhyaya
Email: H.Upadhyaya@CGIAR.ORG

happy growing,

gautam

Thank you very much guatam. This information could prove valuable to someone reading this forum.

Jim

A reference 25 years out of date but may still be useful for US gardeners:

"In Florida day-neutral 'Amarillo' can be sown and harvested at different times throughout the year. Other good cvs are 'Morgan Congo', 'Cuban Congo' and 'No-eye Pea'."

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Cajanus_cajun.html#Germplasm

I have been growing pigeon peas here in Florida for years
My current plants are 3 years old and about 8 feet tall.They currently are in full bloom. After this next harvest I will cut them down and plant new ones. Pigeon peas do not produce as well the older they get. as far as cold tolerant they will die below freezing. Although last winter I one night that hit 32 degrees the leaves dropped but I cut back damaged limbs and it took off again and grew fine. any colder and they surely would have died. Also the leaves make an excellant green manure that use on other plants

i planted a row of pigeon peas about 6 months ago as a windbreak. Very disappointing windbreak as most of the plants are only a foot or two tall. One lone plant is markedly larger than it's neighbors and i wonder if a seed of a diffent variety got mixed in-i understand there at least 240 kinds of pigeon peas-wow!

My seeds came from Echo, i think i'll try to find some locally to compare. Some pods are just starting to mature now and boy are they pretty little beans-i'll see if i can post a few pictures later.

Not sure how to cook them green, sounds like just boil in salted water. Anyone know for how long?

The marbling is a pretty shade of green, i don't think you can see the color in this picture. Aren't they gorgeous? Turns brown when dried, tho'. Found a recipe for pigeon peas in coconut milk with ginger and chile pepper. Sounds delicious but probably they won't hold their color when cooked, either.

The pictures of the plants did not come out so well, i'll try again later.

Great discussion! My wife is from the Dominican Republic [DR] and cooks a lot of rice and gandules so I figured that I would try to grow them. Question: Am I too far north here in Maine? Her Mom brought us some seeds from the DR so I'm going to plant them and see what happens. Bad idea to get them from the DR though, they had some sort of bug infestation. Looks like there's a larvae that tunneled out of the seeds and became some sort of short-lived fly. I put the seeds in the freezer for a few days before planting and hopefully that will take care of it. I'm guessing that anything native to the DR isn't going to make it through our winters anyway so nothing to worry about right?

Why are they called "pigeon" peas? Anybody know their history?