Field pea

Economic importance

Field pea is a valuable fodder crop. For fodder purposes, green mass, grain, chaff, and straw are used. The green mass is readily eaten by animals and is used for preparing winter feed (hay, haylage, silage).

The green mass contains 23.6% protein on a dry matter basis, hay — 18.5%, seeds — 21.9%. 1 kg of seeds of the Falenskaya 40 field pea variety contains 18.4–18.9 g of lysine, as well as methionine, cystine, and tryptophan.

Cultivation areas

As a fodder crop, it is cultivated in the countries of Western Asia and the Mediterranean.

In Russia, field pea is cultivated mainly in the forest-steppe and forest zones of the European part. Due to its early maturity, this crop can be grown in the northern oblasts: Arkhangelsk, Vologda, and Kirov, where spring vetch does not have time to ripen for seed. In the Non-Chernozem Zone, it is considered the best post-harvest (stubble) crop.

Botanical description

Field pea (Pisum arvense L.) is an annual, spring or winter plant. It is often assigned to the same species as common pea.

The root system is taprooted and penetrates into the subsoil.

The stem is thin, green, may have anthocyanin coloration, and is 50–200 cm long.

The leaves are pinnate with narrow serrate stipules and consist of 2–3 pairs of leaflets. Most stipules are larger than the leaflets and are red due to the presence of anthocyanin.

The flowers are located in the leaf axils, 1–2 per axil. The corollas are violet-red, dark red, purple, or light pink. Self-pollination predominates.

The fruit is a many-seeded pod. The seeds are rounded-angular or oval, smooth, usually with small depressions. The seeds are gray, brown, gray-green, marbled, sometimes black with stripes, speckles, or spots. The 1000-seed weight of small-seeded varieties is 80–120 g, of medium-seeded varieties 130–160 g, and of large-seeded varieties 170–200 g.

Biological characteristics

Growing season

The growing season when sown for seed is 85–100 days; for hay or green fodder, 45–55 days.

Flowering of early-ripening varieties begins 35–50 days after sowing.

Agrotechnology

It is usually grown as a fallow-occupying crop in occupied fallow after grain and row crops, in aftercut and stubble sowings.

It serves as a good predecessor for various non-leguminous crops, for example, cereals and potatoes.

When field pea is used as a post-harvest crop, it is necessary to quickly till the soil after harvesting the main crop and sow the mixture. Stubble sowings of a pea-oat mixture make it possible to obtain 12.0–16.1 t/ha of green mass (VNII of Feed, Turskaya Agricultural Experimental Station). At the Dedinovo Experimental Station for Floodplain Meadow Management of the VNII of Feed, field pea in a mixture with oats, sown after harvesting early vegetable crops, yielded 22.3 t/ha of green mass. The yield of a pea-oat mixture after rye harvested for silage and green fodder gave 18.2 t/ha of green mass (Belarusian NIIZ).

Fertilization

In fallow before sowing field pea, 30–40 t/ha of manure is applied; the green mass yield increases to 5 t/ha.

Like other leguminous crops, it responds well to the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. In autumn, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied at 60 kg/ha a.i..

Soil tillage

Tillage is the same as for common vetch.

Sowing

The sowing rate for cultivation for green fodder or hay in a mixture with oats is 220 kg/ha of field pea seeds, or 1.4 million/ha, and 65–70 kg/ha of oat seeds.

When grown for green fodder, sowing is carried out in 2–3 dates at intervals of 7–20 days. Sowing depth is 3–4 cm.

Good results are obtained by sowing field pea with sunflower and annual ryegrass. The sowing rate is 150 kg/ha of field pea seeds and 20–25 kg/ha of sunflower or 20 kg/ha of ryegrass seeds. The sowing method is solid row sowing. The green mass yield is 13–22% higher than that of a pea-oat mixture (Turskaya Experimental Station, Belarus).

Harvesting

Harvesting for green fodder begins at the beginning of flowering; for hay, 10 days after flowering, at the beginning of pod formation.

Growing for seed

When grown for seed in a mixture with oats, the sowing rate is 140–160 kg/ha of field pea seeds, or 0.8–1.0 million/ha of seeds, and 50–60 kg/ha of oats.

For seed, it can be grown in a mixture with white mustard; the sowing rate of mustard seeds is 5–7 kg/ha.

For seed, common pea is sown at the earliest dates.

Methods of pest and disease control are similar to those used in common pea crops.

The main pests are: pea weevil and aphid, grey beet weevil, caterpillar of the alfalfa moth, meadow moth.

The main diseases of field pea include ascochyta blight, white rot, fusarium wilt, downy mildew, rust, and powdery mildew.

For pest and disease control, preference is given to agronomic methods: crop rotation, soil tillage, fertilizer application, control of weeds, and selection of resistant varieties. Among chemical measures, seed treatment is used.

Harvesting for seed begins when 75–80% of pods have ripened, usually by the two-phase method. Sometimes direct combining is used. Delay in harvesting causes large losses of seed yield.

Varieties

Skorospelyi 16. Grown in Eastern Siberia.

Tulunskaya. Grown in Eastern Siberia.

Odesskii 58. Wintering variety, cultivated in Krasnodar Krai and Odessa Oblast of Ukraine.

Sputnik. Wintering variety, cultivated in Krasnodar Krai and Odessa Oblast of Ukraine.

Ukosnyi 1. The most widespread variety.

Druzhnaya (1993).

Zaryanka (1997). The variety was developed by the VNII of Legumes and Groat Crops (Orel).

Alla (2001). Developed by the VNII of Legumes and Groat Crops. Non-shattering, leafless.

Flora (2004). Developed by the Moscow Breeding Station. Non-shattering, leafless.

List of sources

• Vavilov P. P., Gritsenko V. V., Kuznetsov V. S., et al. (1986). Crop Production. Edited by Vavilov P. P. 5th ed., revised and enlarged. Moscow: Agropromizdat.
• Kolomeichenko V. V. (2007). Crop Production/Textbook. Moscow: Agrobiznescenter.