Peas, plough or not?

[EddieB]

I’m growing peas for the first time in a few years. I started running the flatlift through the field today, it is like a 12” deep concrete pad. It is one of the few fields left on the farm that still hasn’t been direct drilled, and in autumn ‘19 wheat was mauled in, in pretty dire conditions.
I had initially hoped to use the Mzuri after the flatlift. I’m now wondering whether to plough and combi drill it and wait until the autumn before getting this field into a DD regime.
Any advice from regular pea growers greatly appreciated.

 

[B'o'B]

Peas won’t like it if it’s as you describe. There’s no point being too purist about DD! If the conditions aren’t right, just admit it and wait until the field is in better condition.

 

[EddieB]

Peas won’t like it if it’s as you describe. There’s no point being too purist about DD! If the conditions aren’t right, just admit it and wait until the field is in better condition.

My plan was to run the drill up the field a couple of times empty and see what sort of seed bed it produced. If not satisfactory then get it ploughed and the contractor in with his combi.

 

[Fish]

What you make of this is up to you,
When we first started no tilling, as an experiment we pull the flat lift through 8 acres of a 20 acre field, which was then drilled to peas, the result was no difference between the flat lifted section and the no till.
We repleted the experiment the next year, the result was the same.

The soil type was medium loam in both years.

 

[B'o'B]

What you make of this is up to you,
When we first started no tilling, as an experiment we pull the flat lift through 8 acres of a 20 acre field, which was then drilled to peas, the result was no difference between the flat lifted section and the no till.
We repleted the experiment the next year, the result was the same.

The soil type was medium loam in both years.

We have DD peas since 2001 into completely in disturbed soil, but never into something I would come close to describing as a “12 inch slab of concrete”!

 

[DrWazzock]

I’d plough as soon as, get a little weather on it and get them in before it bakes like concrete.

 

[EddieB]

Now it’s had the flatlift through it would probably plough up quite nicely. I think I’m still probably going to do a dummy run with the mzuri before I make a decision.