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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-075
Pigeon Pea
Cajanus cajan
Pigeon pea is a fast, heavy nitrogen fixer usually grown as a summer annual, fixing 40-97 kg of nitrogen per hectare (up to 235 in Florida) while yielding dried dal, green peas, chop-and-drop biomass and protein-rich fodder from one plant. It thrives in extreme summer heat on as little as 250-375 mm of rain through a deep taproot and tolerates alkaline clay, reaching first harvest in about 140 days from a late-spring sowing. It is frost-killed and cannot take shade, and both the leaf and raw seed carry anti-nutrients that must be cooked out before feeding pigs or poultry.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–12
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 5–7
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 13 ft
- Mature spread
- 13 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3–4 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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