Peas - Crop Use Guide
Pre-Canopy
Granular Insights Frequency:
- Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
- Log into Granular Insights at least 1 time a week.
- Use the field ranking filters to check field rankings against what you know about your fields.
What to Look For & Actions to Take:
- Early Weed Control: Look for high vegetation areas that likely indicate early weed pressure as your crop has not yet canopied. Several weeds can be a big issue for pea fields, including common lambs-quarter and nightshade. Apply pre-emergence herbicides before planting, and post emergence herbicides if necessary. Having a well established stand of seven to eight plants per square foot is also a critical factor in reducing the competition with weeds.
- Diseases: Several diseases cause the plant to have stunted growth and motting of the leaves, low areas of vegetation may indicate that disease has set in. Controlling diseases within your pea field starts at crop rotation. A 3-4 year crop rotation is recommended especially if soil conditions are overall wet.
- Poor Germination/Replant Decisions: Catch areas of misplant or poor germination early by checking for very low vegetation areas on your field within Granular Insights app.
Canopy
Granular Insights Frequency:
- Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
- Log into Granular Insights at least 2-4 times a week.
- Use the field ranking filters to check field rankings against what you know about your fields.
What to Look For & Actions to Take:
- Weeds: While checking your field within Granular Insights, dark blue areas indicate the potential for heavy weeds. This may be a good time to think about applying post-emergence herbicides while the weeds are still small. Weed control is especially important during canopy stage. Keeping weeds under control is important while raising high quality human edible peas. Scout your field using the find me feature on the mobile app to investigate the areas of concern.
- Pests/Diseases: Localized yet irregular areas of low progress in the Vegetation Index will show if problems are present. Scout field for bacterial blight especially after severe rain storms accompanied by strong winds.
Reproductive
Granular Insights Frequency:
- Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
- Log into Granular Insights at least 1 time a week.
- Use the field ranking filters to check field rankings against what you know about your fields.
What to Look For & Actions to Take:
- Soil: Check your Granular Insights app for high levels of vegetation indicating lodging of the stems as a result of too much Nitrogen in your fields. Too much can result in vegetative development rather than reproductive seed production.
- Weather Conditions: Heat can be detrimental to field pea plants. Watch for uniformity of low vegetation areas to increase irrigation methods if needed.
Harvest & Beyond
Granular Insights Frequency:
- Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
- Log into Granular Insights at least 1-2 times post harvest to assess yield vs. imagery to adjust plans for the next season.
- Review your fields using your knowledge of the Vegetation Index to see how each field performed in order to identify management practice changes for the next year.
What to Look For & Actions to Take:
- Crop Marketing: Field peas are primarily marketed for livestock feed, seed and human consumption. Selling peas in premium markets is a greater challenge than marketing as small-grain crops.
- Swathing: Once your field has been swathed and then combined, vegetation index will begin to look uniform as the plants lose their color.
- Population: If heavy weeds were present this past growing season, possibly think about planting seeds closer together to help with the competition among weeds.
*Not all uses and decisions that can be made at this time are documented above.*
