United Kingdom
February 6, 2019
George Hunter, Pulse and Vining Pea Product Manager, Limagrain UK, asked world record combining pea grower, Tim Lamyman what his top ten tips are for growing a successful crop of 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.
Record-breaking LG Stallion
LG Stallion gained full Recommendation onto the 2019-20 PGRO Recommended List based on its high yields, excellent colour retention and its suitability for human consumption and micronizing. These factors, along with LG Stallion’s excellent standing power and good disease resistance, explain why the variety already holds 7% of the combining pea market.
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