12th September 2022

Top 10 tips for growing peas

No stranger to high yields, Tim Lamyman of Worlaby Farms in Lincolnshire holds the world record yield for combining peas of 6.47 t/ha, with a crop of LG Stallion blue peas.

Whilst not attempting a world record in 2018, Mr Lamyman still managed a very impressive performance in what was a very challenging season for pulse crops, with a second crop of LG Stallion peas that yielded 5.6 t/ha at 14.76% moisture.

We asked Mr Lamyman what his top ten tips are for growing a successful crop of peas…

 

1. Variety choice
Choose the right variety for your situation. It must be high yielding, have good standing power to support it’s yield and have good disease resistance.

2. Drilling conditions
The soil must be aerated before drilling and soil conditions must be excellent for drilling into – forcing any pulse crop into damp soggy soils will restrict root growth from the start.

3. Seed rate
My experience with peas has taught me to edge on a 10% higher rate than recommended. This is to allow the peas to compete with each other earlier, and fill in all the gaps to stop the pigeons from getting in, (if you are lucky enough to not have a pigeon problem, then you can ignore this advice!).

4. Attention to timing of insecticide applications
It’s very important to prevent infection from viruses as these are detrimental to pea yields.

5. Early nutrition in the form of XStress
This helps the pea plant to fight the extremes of weather through the growing season. When the weather conditions are as dry as they were last season, it is essential to use this product more than once.

6. Tissue testing
Carry this out three to four weeks before the pea plant is due to flower, to ascertain any nutrition deficits and to allow yourself plenty of time to balance them up.

7. Potassium levels at flowering
Must be kept up as this element will severely restrict yield if it is low. I would always be applying ToPPit at this time and a 0/30/40 high P and K product specially designed for use in peas.

8. Fungicide choice
Use a targeted approach for the diseases to which your peas are susceptible.

9. Flowering
Targeting specific nutrition at this time will help increase your yield and even out your sample of peas. I would seriously recommend trying CalFlux and XStress mixed in with the fungicide timing.

10. Desiccation timing
To obtain a human consumption sample and a big premium, desiccating a day or two earlier is much safer for sample quality than being a day.

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