🫘 Asha Pigeon Pea
What it looks like
Why this variety
Asha — formally ICPL 87119 — is the pigeon pea that science knows best, and for good reason: it is a medium-duration, high-yielding variety, resistant to fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic, identified for release in India in 1992, and later chosen as the variety whose genome was sequenced by Indian scientists, because it is that widely grown and that important. Plants are tall, 140 to 227 centimeters in trial descriptions, with yellow flowers streaked red on the back, green pods with maroon streaks, and large brown seeds, flowering at 110 to 125 days and reaching 75 percent maturity at 160 to 202 days. That is a long season, and Asha does not apologize for it — it is a shrub, not a quick annual, and it produces accordingly.
The kitchen case is dal: Asha’s large brown seeds split into the golden dal that is a staple across India, and its green peas, picked at four to six months, are sweet and tender for fresh cooking as gandules. A single Asha shrub, given room and time, produces kilos of peas over a long season, and its nitrogen fixation feeds the whole bed while it does it. Grow Asha if you have a long, warm season — Florida does — and a spot where a woody shrub can live for a year or more, because Asha repays patience with abundance that no quick annual can match.
If you are new to choosing between cultivars, the Varieties Matter guide explains why the name after the plant matters as much as the plant itself. And if you want the whole clan at a glance, the broader Pigeon Pea guide covers pigeon peas generally.
How to grow
Pigeon pea in Florida is a shrub that thinks it is a garden plant, and it is one of the best perennial foods you can grow in the warmer parts of the state: sow in spring, give it room — three to six feet for large types — and let it grow into a woody, drought-tough bush that gives fresh peas, dry dal, and nitrogen for the whole bed. It loves heat, tolerates poor sandy soil, and keeps producing through summer when annual vegetables have surrendered, and in frost-free gardens it can live several years, getting woodier and more productive. The catch is time: pigeon peas take months to first harvest, so sow early, be patient, and plant something quick alongside them for dinner in the meantime. Once they start, though, a single shrub can feed a family for a season.
Sow in spring, once the soil is warm, seeds an inch deep and 3 to 6 feet apart for large shrubs, in full sun and well-drained soil — pigeon peas tolerate a very wide pH range, 4.5 to 8.4, and poor sandy soil, but they do not tolerate waterlogging. Water steadily while young plants establish, then about an inch a week while flowering and filling pods, and be patient: Asha flowers at four months and matures at five to seven months, so plant something quick alongside it for dinner in the meantime. In frost-free Florida gardens, Asha can live several years as a woody shrub, getting more productive with age; in gardens with frost, treat it as a long-season annual and sow as early as safely possible.
Water & feeding
Pigeon peas are famously drought-tolerant once established, which is not the same as drought-loving: give young plants steady water until they are woody and rooted, then about an inch a week while they flower and fill pods, because dry plants drop blossoms. Work worm castings into the planting hole, mulch thickly, and go easy on nitrogen fertilizer, because pigeon peas fix their own nitrogen in abundance. Water at soil level, and once pods start drying for the dry harvest, ease off, because wet pods at maturity invite mold.
Common problems
Fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic are the diseases Asha was bred to resist, which is a genuine advantage, but pod borers, pod flies, and other pod pests can still reduce yields, so check pods and pick damaged ones promptly. Drought during flowering drops blossoms, so keep water steady while pods fill, even though established plants tolerate dry spells. Aphids may cluster on young growth; wash them off. And give Asha room: a shrub crowded against a fence will still grow, but it will not produce like a shrub given sun and air on all sides.
Harvest
Pick green peas at four to six months, shelling fresh for cooking as gandules, or wait for dry pods at 160 to 202 days, threshing and storing dry peas airtight and cool for dal. Green peas freeze well after blanching, and dry peas store for a year or more. Save seed from healthy shrubs; Asha is largely self-pollinating, though insects can cross pigeon peas, so isolate if purity matters, and note that seed from a hybrid or a mixed planting will not necessarily come true.
Nerdy fact: Asha’s genome was the first pigeon pea genome fully sequenced by Indian institutions, with some 47,000 protein-coding genes identified, including over a thousand for disease resistance — which means the humble shrub in your garden is also one of the best-studied legumes on Earth, a food-security crop wearing a lab coat.
Saving seeds
Asha is a released variety, so seed saved from it comes true — save seed from your best pods and let them dry fully before storing. The full method is in the Saving seeds section of the Pigeon Pea guide.