PEAS

It belongs to Leguminaceae family. It is a cool season crop grown throughout the world. Green pods are used for vegetable purpose and dried peas are used as pulses. In India, it is cultivated in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Bihar. It is rich source of protein, amino acid and sugar. Green peas straw is good source of nutritional fodder for livestock. 

It can grow on various soil types from sandy loam to clay soils. It gives best results when grown under well drained soil with pH range of 6 to 7.5. Crop cannot withstand in water logging conditions. For acidic soil, do liming.

Type 163: It is late maturing variety which matures in 130-135 days. The plants are deep green in color. It has white flowers; round seeds and big sized seeds (1000seeds have 240gm weight). This leads to powdery mildew disease.

Type 19: It is medium maturing variety which matures in 120 days. The plants are deep green in color. Wrinkled seeds which are white in color. The 1000 seeds have an average weight of 195gm. The legumes are ready to harvest in 75 days. It gives an average yield of 30-40qtl/acre.

Rachna: It is late maturing variety which matures in 130-135 days. It has white flowers and seeds are pure white in color, round seeds, shiny and are big in size (1000 seeds have 210 gm weight). The variety is resistant to powdery mildew disease.

Pant matar 5: It is a dwarf and an early maturing variety. The plant has long pods, green color seeds and the variety is resistant to powdery mildew.  The first pod picking is done after 60-65 days of sowing and the seed harvesting can be done after 100-110 days. The variety is suitable for cultivation in the plains of Uttarakhand.

Aparna: The variety matures in 135-140 days. Plant has medium height. It has round white seeds, shiny and big seeds (1000 seeds have weight of 200gm). The variety is resistant to powdery mildew disease.

IPFD 99-13: The variety matures in 102 days. It is a dwarf variety. The variety is suitable for mid areas mid areas. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew. The 1000 seeds have an average weight of 191gm.

IPFD 1-10: The variety matures in 110 days and it is a dwarf variety. The variety is suitable for mid and north Himalayas. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew and red rot disease. The 1000 seeds have an average weight of 209gm.
 

After kharif crop harvesting, to obtain fine seed bed do one to two ploughing. Along with ploughing take 2-3 harrowing and do planking after ploughing operation. Field should be level to avoid water logging conditions in soil. Give pre-sowing irrigation before sowing of crop, it will help in good germination of crop.

Time of sowing:
In northern areas, sowing should be done in second fortnight of October.

Spacing
Use spacing of 30cmx5cm for early varieties and for late varieties use spacing of 45-60cm x 10cm.

Sowing Depth
Sow the seed at depth of 2-3cm in soil.

Method of sowing
For sowing use seed cum fertilizer drill on ridges which are 60 cm wide.

 

Seed Rate
Use seed rate of 32-40 kg/acre for sowing.

 Fertilizer Requirement (kg/acre)

Pre-sowing irrigation should be given for good germination. When it is cultivated after paddy crop and soil content sufficient moisture, it can sow without irrigation. After sowing it required two or three irrigation. Apply first irrigation during pre-flowering and second at pod formation stage. Heavy irrigation leads to the yellowing of plants and thus reducing the yield.

Depending upon variety it required one or two weeding. First weeding is done either at 2-3 leaves stage or 3-4 weeks after sowing and second weeding is done before flowering. Using herbicides is the effective method of controlling weeds in pea’s cultivation. Pendimethline@1iitre/acre and Basalin@1litre/acre give good results in controlling the weeds. Apply herbicides within 48 hours of sowing.

• Pest and their control:

Pea Thrips and Aphid: They suck cell saps leads to yellowing of crop and thus decreases yield of crop. 

Pod borer: Pod borers are the most serious pests of pea. They bore flowers and pods, causing 10-90% losses, if left unprotected.  

• Disease and their control:

Rust: Yellowish, brown spherical pustules can be observed on stems, leaves, branch and pods.

Powdery Mildew: Patchy, White powdery growth appear on lower side of leaves, branches and pods. It parasitizes the plant using it as a food source. It can developed at any stage of crop development. In severe infestation it causes defoliation.

The green peas pods should be harvested at proper stage. Harvesting of peas may start as soon as peas started changing colour from dark to green. Multiple pickings like, 4 to 5 pickling can be done within the 6 to 10 days interval. Yield depends on the variety, soil fertility and management of the field.

Storage is done at low temperature to increase the availability of green pods for longer duration. packing is done in gunny bags, corrugted fibre board boxes, plastic containers and bamboo baskets