My “Happy Accident” plot!

What peas did you plant in with the rye? Austrian winter peas - or something else?
 
What peas did you plant in with the rye? Austrian winter peas - or something else?
I’m correcting my earlier post! I bought four bags of Survivor peas from Welter’s and two bags of Austrian’s from the local dealer. Think the Survivors’s were starting to bloom, purple flowers. I suspect the Survivor’s were the ones that did better for me but I didn’t keep good enough records of what I did. It’s also possible that I mixed them up. Kinda sounds like something I would do, lol!
 
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Austrian also have purple flowers. I have used icicle in the past and they have white flowers.
 
I’m correcting my earlier post! I bought four bags of Survivor peas from Welter’s and two bags of Austrian’s from the local dealer. Think the Survivors’s were starting to bloom, purple flowers. I suspect the Survivor’s were the ones that did better for me but I didn’t keep good enough records of what I did. It’s also possible that I mixed them up. Kinda sounds like something I would do, lol!
Thanks for that info. Had to laugh ..... I mix things too sometimes - even when that wasn't my intention! Good looking plot.
 
Austrian also have purple flowers. I have used icicle in the past and they have white flowers.
What zone are you in? Did they over winter?

I might do that again- I just worry that they are going to winter kill, but I guess the rye will take up the slack if it does.
 
Zone 4, and yes they came back in the spring. If you plant them with an awnless winter grain it is a dynamite mid summer food source. They will eat every pod and every grain heat within a couple off week of maturing.
 
Zone 4, and yes they came back in the spring. If you plant them with an awnless winter grain it is a dynamite mid summer food source. They will eat every pod and every grain heat within a couple off week of maturing.
Austrian winter peas will come back in the spring? What would be your recommended awnless winter grain?? Learning here ..........
 
Austrian winter peas will come back in the spring? What would be your recommended awnless winter grain?? Learning here ..........
I like 6 row winter barley because it gets half as tall as rye, the deer eat all of the seed heads mid summer, so If you are planting into it you don't have to worry about a crazy amount of volunteer seed germinating. Because it is short I would say you want a good 150 #/acre. When I used it, I did not seed heavy enough and there were more weeds growing in it than I prefer.

The winter peas crawl right up it so the vines aren't sprawled all over the ground. I would imagine because of that fact the pods produce a heavier and healthier crop with the added airflow.
 
Well- I guess running the planter though this field didn’t terminate these peas like I thought it did!
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A closeup of what’s going on here:
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Some of the pods getting pretty big:
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These did very well. Choking out all the weeds is absolutely fantastic- this seems like a perfect thing for this ground, I think this Labor Day I’ll spray to get rid of all the white clover and go with a fall release type planting. Going forward I’m going to avoid the white clover and go with medium red and other annual varieties. My white clover has pretty much dominated all of my plantings except this one.

Edited to add- I don’t know why I said Labor Day! I always forget that has to go in sooner.
 
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Thats one nice plot for june. Assuming the white is dutch white. Used to love that stuff becuse of the growth. Doesn't play nice in no-till though.

What are you using to terminate? Thinking you'll need more than gly maybe some 2,4d mixed in. Wish I did a gly and 2,4D burn this spring.
 
Definitely some 2-4d! I just bought a jug. Prob a quart of gly some 2-4d and AMS. Never mixed it all up like that but will prob try that this summer. Trying to get away from spraying but I’m not there yet!

I don’t know what the white clover is! I usually mix 3-4 varieties- whatever looks good in the Welters catalog. The only constant is I do is I almost always use some Alsyke because I feel like that helps the edges that get shaded along the timber.
 
I have never seen anyone actually get peas to overwinter and finish out like that?! You must have every single deer in the area working on that pea patch, no?
 
I have never seen anyone actually get peas to overwinter and finish out like that?! You must have every single deer in the area working on that pea patch, no?

I get good overwintering of peas. I don’t plant them that heavy though. The deer eat all of the pods right before the barley heads. They don’t eat much if any of the pea plant itself. I know many others have different results with them but not me.


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I get good overwintering of peas. I don’t plant them that heavy though. The deer eat all of the pods right before the barley heads. They don’t eat much if any of the pea plant itself. I know many others have different results with them but not me.


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Hey, speaking of... You have winter barley heading now?
 
I have never seen anyone actually get peas to overwinter and finish out like that?! You must have every single deer in the area working on that pea patch, no?
Not yet! I sampled a young pod a week ago and it wasn’t as sweet as I expected. I haven’t done peas for the last 7-8 years but they never over wintered before. This was a pretty mild winter.
I get good overwintering of peas. I don’t plant them that heavy though. The deer eat all of the pods right before the barley heads. They don’t eat much if any of the pea plant itself. I know many others have different results with them but not me.


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It’s crazy. This is the 50/50/50 rye/oats/peas and it got the seeder dragged through it earlier this spring and they laid down flat on the ground. I was sure they were toast. It was like knocking them down supercharged them.
 
I’m going to keep using this thread to keep documenting my plots.

I was going to do some 2-4-d this spring to put a zap on my white clover but got busy with work travel and didn’t get it done. I wasn't super happy with my fall mix- I did a fall release deal but i think I planted too deep. As dumb as it sounds, as my soil improves my seeder really cut through it and i just think it penetrated too much. So it was moist when I planted and then it quit raining and it got dry for about a month and it really didn’t take off until almost October. This spring I got a fair to good amount of rye but is still wasnt as thick as it should have been if I did 50/50/50 and the annual clover was waaaaay too thin. Not the mixes fault, more the fault of poor planting technique.


Sunday was the day to get started! I already had the sprayer on the tractor. While I couldn’t use the 2-4-d I wanted to, I put on 2 quarts per acre 41% gly with AMS. Hoping that sets back the white clover enough. Speaking of that, I wish I would have taken more pics. Had some BIG white clover leaves down there. No idea which variety that was, I have put down all kinds of different varieties over the years.

Got the spraying done then hooked up the seeder. Using a legume heavy cover crop from an active HT member here! The rye was apparently at the right stage- lots of pollen and it layered down nice. Stayed down. Had the disc gang set almost straight and it has been really dry so overpenetration didn’t seem to be an issue. Got it all done by 3 yesterday and we got .8 inch of rain overnight and it’s still raining. Pretty happy about the timing.

Wish I would have taken more pics.
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Field pennycress and grasses are my main weed problem. Seems like thats related to my late germination last fall. Hopefully my herbicide treatment and a quick germination of this planting will outcompete it. Think there are much worse weed problems to have.

My goal is less or zero herbicide most years. Been a pipe dream so far.
 
Yo Westwind -

In your pics at post #30, you showed a ton of peas in your field. You said driving the planter didn't knock back the peas as much as you thought. What seeding rate did you use for getting such a great pea plot?? How deep did you plant them?? We tried peas a couple times at camp, but didn't have much success. I'm wondering what we did wrong.
 
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