Monday, November 5, 2007
52-4

Pigeon Pea: A Versatile, Drought-Resistant Crop for the Sothern Great Plains.

Sue Partridge-Metz, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas, TX 75252, John Sloan, Texas A&M University - Soil & Crop Sciences, TAMU - Dallas, 17360 Coit Rd., Dallas, TX 75252-6502, Russell Sutton, Soil & Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, Srinivas Rao, Grazelands Research Lab, USDA-ARS, USDA-ARS, 7207 W Cheyenne St., El Reno, OK 73036-2144, Sharad Phatak, University of Georgia, Athens, Athens, GA 11111, and James Heitholt, 17360 Coit Rd., Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University, Research & Extension Center, Dallas, TX 75252-6599.

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.)] is a drought tolerant legume originating in India and ranking sixth in production worldwide, compared to other grain legumes.  The objective of this study was to evaluate the production potential of pigeonpea in the alkaline clay soils of the North Texas Blacklands.  Four pigeonpea cultivars (Georgia One, Georgia Two, W-1, and W-3) were obtained from the University of Georgia, Tifton Campus.  In 2005 and 2006, Georgia Two was planted in Houston Black clay that had previously received multiple applications of a low and high rate of municipal yard waste compost (YWC-Low and YWC-High, respectively) and an agronomic rate of biosolids (Bio).  The amended soils were compared to un-amended native soil (Ctrl).  Georgia Two biomass production in 2005 was 2113, 1733, 2629, and 2096 kg ha-1 for the Ctrl, YWC-Low, YWC-High, and Bio treatments, respectively, and in 2006, was 820, 943, 1963, 973 kg ha-1, respectively.  Greater biomass production for the YWC-High treatment was probably due to more rapid water infiltration into the clay soil.  This effect was most pronounced in the 2006 growing season when growing conditions were unusually hot and dry.  In another 2006 study, the four cultivars were planted into Houston Black clay at N fertility levels of 0 and 112 kg ha-1.  The cultivars were evaluated for forage and dry bean production.  The W-3 cultivar produced significantly more forage than the other cultivars in unfertilized soil, but the effect was less apparent when fertilized with 112 kg ha-1 N.  Georgia One and Georgia Two yielded more dry beans than W-1 and W-3 under both fertility levels.  During the 2006 growing season, studies were conducted under rainfall deficit conditions with temperatures exceeding 32ºC for more than 115 days.  This suggests that pigeonpea has potential as a low input crop, adaptable to various cropping systems in the Southern Great Plains.    

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