Re: Yes we have no gandules

P* E*

Adam wrote:

[Sometimes I type before I think.

Adam: All bets are off for Gandules in NYC ! These are tropical plants and
NYC is a long way's away from the tropics unles you grow them in green
houses. As I mentioned to someone else: Threy grow bananas and oranges in
Iceland ! By taking the steam from the Geysers and piping them into their
greenhouses they maintain a humid, warm, tropical environment...]

Pat replies:

The beauty of backyard & community gardening is that growers can turn their
imagination & creativity loose on small areas in order to try innovative crops
that might NOT be commercially feasible in that particular zone. In the study
described in the very URL you quoted,
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/v4-202.html#pigeonpea
researchers in Virginia produced 1.36kg/sq meter (roughly 3.3lb/sq yd) of fresh
green pigeon peas & 204gr/m or a half pound of dry pigeon peas per square yard.
So I'm thinking that anybody south of the Mason/Dixon line should be able to
grow determinate (short day) pigeon peas pretty well without any special
technology. Intrepid Northerners can probably grow at least the fresh green
pigeon peas under the right conditions (south facing slope; sandy loam; start
plants 4 weeks in advance; dont over fertilize; cloche on cool days in May &
June yada yada....)

After all, if a guy I know can grow sweet potatoes in Nova Scotia without a
greenhouse, then you can grow pigeon peas in New York under the right
conditions. And so what if 3lb from a 3' by 3' square is less than you could get
out of bush beans or carrots, you can always get carrots at the farmers market!
As a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna start some pigeon pea plants tonite...!

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