Visual indicators of physiological maturity in pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]

The visual observation son pod and seed characteristics such as changes in colour of seed coat, hilum, cotyledons, pod wall, canopy, and first indicat ion of seed shrinkage (visual and volume) in pod chambers were recorded in developing and maturing pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] cultivars, viz., AL15 and T21 in order to identify the indices of their physiological maturity (PM). The changes in colour of the seed parts and pod wall coincid ed well with the PM in the two cultivars, and hence, can be used as markers or indices of PM. The characters such as first indication of seed shrinkag e in pod chambers and stage when pod walls lose green colour were adjudged to be the best maturity indices as these were easy to visualize and were no n-destructive. Change sin the volume of seeds in the two cultivars also con formed the data on visual seed shrinkage.