THE PIGEON PEA AS A FOOD CROP

Transcription

1 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 175 given you with one exception; that is the fact that certain governmental agencies have added one other factor in determining the essentiality of various crops. The values assigned crop on a similar basis to that al ready described are adjusted on the basis of morale factors. It is here that I wish to stop for it is difficult for me to decide wheth er I prefer watermelons or spinach. THE PIGEON PEA AS A FOOD CROP SCOTT U. STAMBAUGH, Babson Park, Florida The pigeon pea is a shrub-like bush grow ing from six to twenty feet high. It is a long time annual. Seed planted in the spring will produce dry seed the first time the fol lowing February. The average life of the plant is four years. The history of the pigeon pea is lost in the dimmest sort of antiquity. It probably was a native of North Africa but has been in cultivation in India for an estimated 6,000 years. About one percent of cross fertilization occurs naturally each year. This together with1 centuries of mutations has resulted in a pattern in genetics that will with time and patience yield almost anything in plant or seed characters that the plant man could want. If you want a tall plant, simply plant a large crop, save the seed from the tallest plants and replant. You are off to the races. If you want large seed save single plant progeny of the largest seeded plants and in a few generations there you are. I feel sure that there were fifty thousand differ ent pigeon peas in my first planting for selection purposes in Ordinarily pigeon peas run 8,000 seed to the pound dry. I now have varietal forms that run 2,500 dry seed to the pound, or nearly four times as large as the original. I have paid very little attention to anything but productivity, size of seed, and fitness for human food in my selection work. It seemed to me that there was so much land in Florida where this crop could and would survive our weather the year round that season of production was not important. My results with this crop do not seem to resemble the results at the Experiment Station, in any degree. The character of my, selection work is probably the reason. One item let me blow up in the begin ning; as I have it and under the cultural system I have evolved this crop is not even mildly sensitive to root knot. If there is,such a thing as an ideal gar den crop for Florida the pigeon pea is that crop. There are many reasons. The most important favorable factor is the complete adaptability of this crop to the soil and cli matic conditions over large areas in Flor ida. The wide variety of uses to which the products of this plant can be put is another reecommendation for it. The use of the green peas as food is probably the most important thing at the moment. One hun dred hills of these peas oh any vacant lot near home will produce all the green peas any family can eat all winter with a sur plus for canning. A combination of pigeon pea and tame grass makes an excellent year round pas ture. The crop can be used as a source of large tonnage of high protein forage for hay as silage. The dry peas can be fed to chickens as is, or ground for other livestock. On high dry land and with a proper cul tural practices this crop will last four years

2 176 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY from a single seeding and will produce two crops of peas each' year. In the Babson Park area the first crop comes in January- February and the second one in April-May. An average well tended crop will run to one ton of dry threshed peas or four tons of green shelled peas per acre per year. The green peas are about as palatable as English peas or green limas. Most peo ple like them better than green black eyes or cow peas. From the standpoint of dietitics the pig eon pea seems to be just what the doctor ordered for Florida. The green peas are 65 percent moisture, 7.2 percent protein, 18 percent digestible carbohydrates, 1% percent fat, and are rather better than us ual carriers of phosphorus, calcium, mag nesium and potash. This last item is doubly important in Florida. It would probably become tiresome but one could live on green pigeon peas for an extended period. In spite of all the things in its favor this crop has made little or no headway in Florida for a long time. A few hundred acres of ordinary pigeon *peas are grown around Miami and on the Keys each year and the peas green or dry are sold mostly to the Nassau negroes. In the last 4 or 5 years they have appeared in the stores in white town ready shelled in one pound cellophane bags. The use of the green pea is increasing each* year and could be greatly increased by offering the larger seeded, better flavored sorts now available. The greatest single difficulty with this crop is very likely its completely uncon ventional plant food requirements and the total lack of understanding of those require ments on the part of the growers and tech nicians alike. A single crop of peas and the plant tops removed in harvesting the peas will remove from an acre of land, 125 pounds of phos phorus, as phosphorus, not P2O5, 450 pounds of potash, as K2O, 220 pounds of calcium, as calcium, and probably magnesium in like proportion. The ordinary fertilizer program as fol lowed for legumes simply does not supply these minerals in any such quantities. Lack of understanding of this plant food prob lem has resulted in very, very disappointing yields in the hands of most growers. An other point of confusion is that many growers have reported 15 foot crops of pigeon peas with out the use of fertilizer. These people only have part of the facts. In every case it turns but that they have planted on land that had been previously cropped for a period of years. This response on old fields is an expression of the ability of this plant to recover reverted phosphorus and dig out bases from the soil that most crops would not be able to get at. These no fertilizer crops of pigeon peas have done their producing on fertilizer residues. This capacity of pigeon peas for digging out plant food residues from previous crops led to the. discovery that they did best on a mixture containing no nitrogen at all, 2,000 pounds of raw, rock phosphate^ 1,000 pounds of ground dolomite, 150 pounds of sulfur, 400 pounds muriate of potash, 20 pounds sulfate of copper, 20 pounds sulfate of manganese, and 20 pounds of sulfate of iron. Such a formula is not legal as a fer tilizer but the pigeon pea does not seem to understand about that and goes right ahead. There is food for some thought here. The period of production of green peas from a crop in the Babson Park area and south is normally long. Green peas can be picked direct from the plants every day from January 1st to June 1st. This is a factor ^hat adds greatly to the value of the crop at this time. One of the most favorable factors for the pigeon pea is that spraying does not seem to be at all necessary to control in sects or diseases. This crop does not seem to have insects or disease enemies serious enough to require spraying. There is a^ small green pod worm that always does a small amount of damage to the winter crop of peas and rather more to

3 McCubbin Cabbage Variety Tests In The Hastings Section Fig. 1. Typical plants of the Early Copenhagen Market variety with desirable heads for Northern markets.

4 McCubbin Cabbage Variety Tests In The Hastings Section Figi. 2. Typical plant growth and appearance of an early A, and a late strain B, of Copenhagen Market, 88 days after the plants were set in the field. Fig. 3. Top and bottom rows show side and top views, respectively of heads of one strain of Early Copenhagen Market cabbage. Round desirable head A; round-pointed head B; and round-triangular or lobbed heads C and D.

5 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 177 the spring crops. This worm does not seem to ever reach sufficient numbers to do more than minor damage. One of the varietal forms turns out to be resistant to this worm to a very definite degree. In each year a few plants die with great suddenness as a result of the attacks of the mushroom Clytocibe Ulidens. This difficulty does not seem to spread from plant to plant even when they are in the same hill. The loss of a single plant in this manner is probably an expression of indi vidual susceptibility of the particular plant and the reason its neighbors are not often affected is that the bulk of the plants are resistant. Another point of excellence in the pig eon pea right now, when it is so hard to get things done, is the manner in which this plant presents its crop of peas for har vesting. The plant is a stiff bush that holds most of its crop high' enough so that no bending is necessary to pick the peas. Fur ther it is possible to regulate very closely the exact point at which the peas will de velop by successive pruning of the crop through the summer months. When this is properly done all the, peas will come on short twigs on top of a hedge-like row. This is particularly important where the crop is to be machine harvested. The pigeon pea has no near rival among food crops in its ability to resist the ordin ary hazards of weather under Florida con ditions, and still come up with a satisfactory crop of wholesome food, Once the plants have become well established on high dry land by a summer's rain, it is almost im possible for drouth to hurt them or even limit the crop. I am just finishing the harvest of a very satisfactory crop from my seed plots and this spring has been plenty dry. As a crop, pigeon peas will take a 28- degree cold in their stride. They did this winter. A temperature of 26 degrees will defoliate them but not kill the wood. A 24-degree temperature will kill them to the ground but if they are banked they will come right out from the base. Even a hurricane lacks the ability to com pletely discourage a pigeon pea crop. It can pull off all the leaves, but the plants just bend down and come right back up after the storm. The crop will be there at the regular time. What is the matter with the pigeon pea in Florida is mostly a general and profound ignorance of the crop, its needs, and its values. CABBAGE VARIETY TESTS IN THE HASTINGS SECTION DR. E. N. McCUBBIN Potato Laboratory, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Hastings, Florida One of the most important cabbage grow ing sections of Florida is located in the Hastings area where 3 to 4 thousand acres are grown each year. Here, the plants are set in the field between October 15 and February 1 and the crop is harvested from December 15 to May 15 and sold as green cabbage on Northern markets. These mar kets prefer uniform, round, dark green heads weighing from 2 to 4 pounds each, Fig. 1. The varieties most commonly grown at Hastings are Copenhagen Market and Glory