Suggestions for companion / "scaffolding" crops to support combinable peas (and other pulses that show potential but go flat before harvest)?

[chunky]

I wondered whether buckwheat would work with it? I know its not that strong but would it give something for it to climb and just add to the framework? Could be blown out the back for an immediate catch crop post harvest too. Has anyone tried it?

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

we grew blue peas and oats last year, used the earliest variety of oats and latest of peas and still had too spray to even out harvesting as oats were not fit. Will be trying again this year but planting peas deeper and N on seedbed for oats to get away quicker and hopefully sort this. Would try with spring barley as would reach maturity earlier but not a take all break. Seed rates this year will be 250kg/ha peas and 30kg/ha oats

 

[whitefox]

Over the years some of you have grown companion / (scaffolding) crops with combinable peas to to help prevent the pea vines going flat before they are fit to harvest. I know this thread title has been discussed in the past but it would be really interesting to read the experiences of those of you who have tried various companion crops in recent years to keep peas standing. I am sure we can all learn from your success or failure companion crops. The separating out of the companion crops seed from the peas once in store must be quite a problem . The drying of wet peas that are mixed with other grains must be also another problem that has to be dealt with.
But as flat peas are such a nightmare to harvest ,any thing that can help the harvesting of peas is worth looking at in these times of change when a diverse rotation is becoming more essential to help reduce blackgrass etc.

lupins work,and its a true legume break

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

do

lupins work,and its a true legume break

do lupins not take too long to get to harvest compared to peas?

 

[whitefox]

do

do lupins not take too long to get to harvest compared to peas?

The lupins are grown as a cane to hold the peas up, their yield is so low that the maturity is irrelevant, at least that was my experience, in a more favorable climate the lupins may contribute more to the overall yield, if the peas are held up they can wait a bit for the lupins to catch up, or in my situation, for it to stop raining

 

[Pilatus]

October 19th 2023.
Now a very frustrating harvest is behind us , it would be interesting to have an update on how any of your “pea scaffolding crops”worked or didn’t work this past harvest.
Hi @BenAdamsAgri did you try “Oats to hold up peas” in 2023?
@Simon Chiles did you grow mustard with peas in 2023?
@Fuzzy , did you have oats to hold up peas in 2023?
So if you grew peas with a scaffolding crop in 2023 how did it cope, as if scaffolding crop worked this year it must be a good combination to use, especially if separating the peas from the scaffolding crop grains isn’t too difficult.
Is the farmer in the attached article a TFF member, possibly one of you. Thank you

 

[nxy]

My neighbour grows oats, triticale and forage peas for combining dry. He has been doing it for years. They seem to have done well this year and stood for a long time waiting for the contractor's combine to come. I did ask him why he used forage peas and he said it was because of the seed size. He wanted to drill them in one pass and found this didn't work well with bigger seeds. We can get an area payment on cereals mixed with protein crops but only if the number of seeds of the protein crop is higher than the cereal crop so these crops tend to be pea or bean "heavy". I was certain the whole lot would go flat this year and it didn't. He feeds it whole to fattening lambs. My camera skills are not great.

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

Tired a real variety this year.

This webinar might be of interest to you

Intercropping webinar- which species and varieties work best?

A deep delve into the species and varieties which work best for intercropping in the UK. An IF webinar, part of the LEGUMINOSE project.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

 

[Farmer Roy]

Oats ?