I started out wanting to grow pigeon peas as a permaculture crop, and as a nitrogen fixer from which I could also get food. I read that you can use them as tomato stakes in the garden, and they fix nitrogen, so they would feed the
tomato for you. I love pigeon peas, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I ordered seeds for $2 from eBay from a gardener in North Florida. They came and I planted them, but they never came up. I went to WalMart, bought a bag of dried pigeon peas and thought I'd try growing some of those. Miraculously, they DID come up and grow.
I was in SE Gainesville then, and had to grow my little pigeon pea plants in pots until I moved. Everything I read said they did not like being put into pots, and would not grow well afterwards, but that proved to be untrue with these. I put the larger one outside the courtyard wall and the smaller one inside, and they are both doing well, in fact, the larger one is taller than the wall and keeps growing.
They've been blooming for a week or so, maybe two, and the other day I notice one solitary carpenter bee pollinating the outside plant. He ran off any invaders who tried to get to the plant before he was done. Another carpenter bee would hover around until he left, then he would take over. This would go on for hours.
So today, I was watching them, and I looked up at the tallest branch and I HAVE PODS!
I am in awe of this plant. It not only survived the winter unscathed when I was told it would surely freeze back if not die completely, but it is already bearing for me, and it's not even April yet! I did put a little spindly tomato plant at the bottom, just to see what it would do, so I'll report back later.
Pretty flowers. I might have to try them.
ReplyDeleteI really love the flowers too! I'm telling you, I grew this from a bag of dried peas from WalMart. Well worth it at less than $2 for the bag, and I got to eat most of the rest.
ReplyDelete