Determining the Irrigation Requirements of Select Native American Indigenous Legume Crop Varieties for Oklahoma.

Small holder producers in both disadvantaged and Native American communities strive to produce marketable legumes that receive higher economic value. Small holder producers need to know how to grow and produce traditional heirloom varieties of legumes from Native American communities to have higher value products to sell to these consumers. The purpose of this study was to understand the response of three different traditional heirloom legumes to three different moisture regimes. This is useful information in order for Native American producers to plan for irrigation systems to support utilization of traditional varieties for market gardening production. The effects of three different irrigation moisture regimes (control; critical point irrigation; and full irrigation) on pea production for three Native American indigenous legumes; Pottawatomie Pea – Vigna species; Hidatsa Indian Red Bush Bean - Phaseolus vulgaris; Battered Buffalo Skull Peas - Vigna species, were investigated at Perkins, Oklahoma on a Teller Loam (Fine-loamy, mixed, active, thermic Udic Argiustolls). Overall yields for Pottawatomie Pea did not vary significantly, but ranged from a low of 6193 lbs. for the no irrigation treatment to a high of 6752 lbs. per acre for full irrigation. Overall yields for the Hidatsa bean did not vary significantly although they ranged from zero to 184 lbs. per acre. Overall yield of Battered Buffalo Skull peas ranged from a low of 2788 lbs. per acre for the no irrigation treatment to 3161 and 3710 lbs. per acre for the mid and full irrigation treatments, respectfully. This means that you should not expect to see a significant increase in yield if drip irrigation was provided to these species. For production considerations the main concerns were that production of indeterminate varieties requires hand labor and must be considered as part of the production system. This trial showed that the Vigna species are robust varieties that can adapt to low moisture conditions and recover even when stressed by lack of rainfall. The drawback to these varieties is that if produced at large production scale then use of a chemical desiccant and machine harvesting must be utilized.