General Comments

Large-seeded, cool season annual.  Best companion-seeded with a spring cereal grain to encourage climbing and minimize lodging.

Pea-small grain mixtures can also be harvested as forage, yielding 1-3 TDM per-acre, with slightly higher forage quality and palatability than small grain forage alone.

Nitrogen credits to a following crop are minimal.  Credit 20 lbs N per-acre if the peas reached near-maturity.

Planting specifications

Seeding rate: Peas are recommended for planting in mixes:

• 30-40 lbs Trapper field peas* with 20-30 lbs oats or barley for cover only;
• 50 lbs Trapper field peas* with 30-45 lbs oats or barley for forage production.

*Seed size varies considerably among varieties (Trapper is larger than many – fewer seeds per pound).

Seeding depth: Seed the peas, or the mix, ½ inch deep.

Fertility needs: Peas will fix most, but not all, of the N required for optimum growth.  Apply 15 to 30 lbs supplemental N to optimize biomass production (2 to 3.5 TDM per-acre).

Inoculate with Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae (R. viciae).

Management and termination

None needed, will winter kill

In a cover crop mix

Field peas are only recommended in mixes, seed seeding rates above.