[gman]

Has anyone used a spreader point for planting peas or lentils?

 

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

Has anyone used a spreader point for planting peas or lentils?

How much of a spread?


We use farmland boots which spread 4-5" on 12" spacings for peas with our Concord.

These pics are all from the same field from last year.

 

[gman]

Christian, that is about the same thing I was looking at doing. I am using a flexi coil 4 in.spread point. Thanks for the pics...looks real nice. I was concerned with the impact of peas hitting the spreader.

 

[brazil07]

your sbu goes up with more spread so can get away with putting bit more fert with them as well - narrower spacing bit better as well. Most people plant peas to use as little fertilizer as possible, but I prefer to use fair bit.

 

[2388h]

Interesting to say the least, I have never grown spring peas but the winter peas we are growing we plant as deep as we can get them with the drill, seems way different from what you guys are describing for spring peas.

 

[tswanson]

I used to seed peas with a 3.5" paired row opener. I would have problems with it plugging down at the opener and I didn't like how hard it pulled to get the seed as deep as I wanted. Last year I switched to a 1" opener and I thought it worked much better. No plugging and obviously much easier to pull. Thought the stand was easily as good as any other year. These are Dutch openers on a Morris Contour.

 

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

We only seed peas about 1" deep... In our area we have a lot of moisture and simply don't need to go any deeper.


We put down 100lbs of 10-18.8-18.8-7.8 with the seed so yes, the increased SBU really helps prevent injury.

 

[2388h]

We also do not fertilize at all for the winter peas.

 

[gman]

I am pretty new to raising peas so I am wondering what is the sbu you talk about? Do you fertilize according to soil samples or just what you know works?

 

[brazil07]

SBU = seedbed utilization. You can google it and probably get all you need on it. Fertilize for target yield; take soil samples every few years - seems to work. Have fiddled with different rates/products to put less on, but putting more fertilizer on certainly gives more consistent results.

 

[gman]

Thank you guys for the info! Christian what was the yield of the field you took the pics of?

 

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

That field did around 60. Our whole crop averaged 52. Two years ago it was close to an 80 average.

These are yellows.... Meadow variety.

 

[X80]

Christian i have a spring pea trial goin in this year, do you only fertilize with seeding, no in field top up? What sort of rainfall would you get from planting to peas being ripe ready to desiccate?

Nice crop!

Does the stubble amongst the peas help them stand or does it just rot away real quick?

Ant...

 

[Christian A. Herrnboeck]

Peas get 8lbs an ac of AMS put on at weed spray time too... But yes most of the fertility is done at seeding time.


Rainfall? Way too much the last couple of years... I do believe we were at 400mm for the growing season last year. Half of that would have been great.


That stubble helps keep them standing early, and a shot of a good fungicide at flowering keeps them standing better at harvest time... the stubble is pretty much rotten by the time we straight cut, the canopy is so thick that it allows for a quick break down.

 

[X80]

Cheers Christian, much appreciated...

Ant