Winter Peas?

[bornagain62511]

I am considering adding winter peas to our August planting of rye and oats. Are there any winter pea varieties that standout in either being more desirable, attractive, sweet tasting, or winter survivability in cold temperatures? Has anyone in Wisconsin planted them and had them survive the winter and green up to provide forage the following spring?

Sorry if this has been thoroughly discussed, if so maybe someone could point me to the best threads?

thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Tree Spud]

I am considering adding winter peas to our August planting of rye and oats. Are there any winter pea varieties that standout in either being more desirable, attractive, sweet tasting, or winter survivability in cold temperatures? Has anyone in Wisconsin planted them and had them survive the winter and green up to provide forage the following spring?

Sorry if this has been thoroughly discussed, if so maybe someone could point me to the best threads?

thanks in advance for any replies!

No! They are too tasty.

Seriously I have planted several times and with a tall stalk plant that provides some cover and vining, will be gobbled by the deer.

I am going to plant them with a whole tasty mix in late June ... forage soy beans, Hydrid red top, grain milo, sunflowers, red clover, forage turnips, Winfred forage brassica.

You introduced Winfred forage brassica to us last and I plants last summer. Lasted well into late fall winter and everything including stems hammered by the deer. Lots of volume of forage also.

I

 

[scott44]

Plant the cheapest ones you can find, I mix them in my cereal grains with sunflowers and radishes most everything except the rye gets wiped out by Dec.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I use icicle winter peas. Had them over winter and put on pods. The deer hammered the pods in early July when they filled out.


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[Iowa_Dave]

Plant the cheapest ones you can find, I mix them in my cereal grains with sunflowers and radishes most everything except the rye gets wiped out by Dec.

Agreed. I have closely watched deer pick their way through a rye/oats/clover/pea planting eating the peas and eschewing the rest. I can't think of anything that the deer will go for more than the fresh pea plants.

 

[ruskbucks]

I plant them every year in northern WI. I mix them in with my ww,wr, and oats. They usually never reach more than 4 inches before their eaten. I've never had them come up in the following spring. One year I put a cover crop of oats and peas. The peas did great, they looked so good I just couldn't till them all over. I left a 1/2 acre of about 2ft tall peas up. I came back up in 3-4 weeks and they were all gone, you couldn't even tell there was ever peas planted there. Just the oats were left.

 

[bornagain62511]

No! They are too tasty.

Seriously I have planted several times and with a tall stalk plant that provides some cover and vining, will be gobbled by the deer.

I am going to plant them with a whole tasty mix in late June ... forage soy beans, Hydrid red top, grain milo, sunflowers, red clover, forage turnips, Winfred forage brassica.

You introduced Winfred forage brassica to us last and I plants last summer. Lasted well into late fall winter and everything including stems hammered by the deer. Lots of volume of forage also.

I

Plant the cheapest ones you can find, I mix them in my cereal grains with sunflowers and radishes most everything except the rye gets wiped out by Dec.

I use icicle winter peas. Had them over winter and put on pods. The deer hammered the pods in early July when they filled out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

to everyone who has posted above, and to those who post hereafter, could you please share how big in size your plots with peas were? that makes a huge difference. Around here, if I planted a half acre of Winfred Forage Brassica, or Radishes, they would never get above 3 to 5" tall. But if I plant 2 acres, they would nearly reach their full potential. Even the Winfred I planted last year, 2 acres of it, probably 25% of it was heavily browsed all summer and only got about half to one-third in height as the rest of the plot.

What I'm getting at is, if I planted half an acre with rye, oats, and peas, I have no doubt the peas would never get above 2 or 3" tall, and that might affect their winter survival rate. But 2 acres would be a totally different story, they would put on a lot more growth and perhaps be able to survive the winter better? I'm not sure, just wondering out loud, since I've never added peas to my plots, so just curious to learn more. thanks!

 

[bornagain62511]

I plant them every year in northern WI. I mix them in with my ww,wr, and oats. They usually never reach more than 4 inches before their eaten. I've never had them come up in the following spring. One year I put a cover crop of oats and peas. The peas did great, they looked so good I just couldn't till them all over. I left a 1/2 acre of about 2ft tall peas up. I came back up in 3-4 weeks and they were all gone, you couldn't even tell there was ever peas planted there. Just the oats were left.

that 1/2 acre cover crop mix of oats and peas, do you remember the approximate date of planting? And when you say you came back 3-4 weeks later and they were all gone, what time of year was that? July? September? November?

 

[scott44]

I plant 2 plots one half acre and the other an acre.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

1/2 acre and 3/4 acre

ADDED: I can not speak to the 1/2 acre plot making it through the winter. I just planted that one last fall (also was AWP not icicle because I couldn't get my hands on them)

 

[bornagain62511]

Plant the cheapest ones you can find, I mix them in my cereal grains with sunflowers and radishes most everything except the rye gets wiped out by Dec.

I plant 2 plots one half acre and the other an acre.

scott44, what's the habitat like around you, are you in farm country with a lot of agriculture around you like alfalfa, soybeans,etc? or mostly wooded ground? And how many deer per acre would you say, approximately, in your area? Thanks for sharing

 

[scott44]

scott44, what's the habitat like around you, are you in farm country with a lot of agriculture around you like alfalfa, soybeans,etc? or mostly wooded ground? And how many deer per acre would you say, approximately, in your area? Thanks for sharing

It is mostly all ag, corn, soybeans and alfalfa/hay with some smaller pockets of woods. I would say the deer population is 30/sq. mi.

 

[bowhunternw]

I think peas are kind of like the frosting on a cake. Once they find them they will clear them out in a hurry. Like many others I always plant them in a mix with small grains. They serve as a good attractant but cant rely on them as a sole food source.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I don't plant my food plots until mem day weekend. If my peas overwinter I will just let them climb up the winter cereal and think about what to do with them once late summer planting time rolls around. I am actually planning on planting peas this spring into one of the plots I planted peas in last August. This plot will be a dipper rotation style planting.

 

[bornagain62511]

thanks for sharing everyone. I'm very excited about adding winter peas to our rye/oats. for many years we did rye and radish and that was great, but we had to be careful about the density of the radishes or they would drown the rye and practically kill it out if the radishes were too thick, even 5 pounds per acre radish was almost to much. I think the rye/oats/winter peas mix would be the maximum attraction plot around here from September through December, and then the rutabagas will fill the December through March for maximum food and attraction, and the rye will be there to green up in the spring.

 

[Tree Spud]

Planted 2.5 acres of peas ...

 

[bornagain62511]

Planted 2.5 acres of peas ...

Did you plant a solid stand of peas? Or did you plant the 2.5 acres of peas with a mix like you stated earlier, with Winfred and the rest of the tall stalked plants? And what was your approximate planting date last year?

 

[ruskbucks]

that 1/2 acre cover crop mix of oats and peas, do you remember the approximate date of planting? And when you say you came back 3-4 weeks later and they were all gone, what time of year was that? July? September? November?

I think this was the year it was crazy warm in late March and I was told you could plant oats as early as you can get in the field. So I gave it a shot. I think the picture of the peas is in early July. They peas were loaded with pods. The bottom picture is the same field most likely August. I'm not sure what happens to a pea plant when they mature but there was not a sign of even a dried stem or pod. There was some heavy trails in the field and also a lot of deer poo, so I believe they were all browsed down. I see what they do to my 2 acres of soybeans every year. I don't think a 1/2 of the peas would last long. I think because I planted the 2+ acre cover crop and it being spring they didn't wipe it out like the soybeans.