A legume of character — the grass pea has been cultivated for centuries in harsh lands, where few plants endure with such resilience.
About the variety. With a flat grain and cream colour, it is highly resistant to adverse growing conditions and tolerant of frost. The cycle is early and short. Important note: seeds require 24 h soaking or scarification before sowing; after harvest, the grass pea must be soaked repeatedly in water for an extended period and fully cooked before consumption.
Itinerário técnico
Como cultivar pea?
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
pH ideal 6.0 to 7.5Temperatura ideal 13 to 18 °CCompasso 10 cm in the row, 30 cm between rows
Sementeira
Sow direct three to five centimetres deep, in rows, in late winter or early spring: February to March in southern Europe and April further north. Germination takes seven to fourteen days in cool soil. Do not transplant. It is a low, branching plant that needs no support: if the spacing is respected, the plants hold each other up. Make a single sowing, because there is only one harvest, as dry grain, in early summer. Sow into soil that has already dried out, because the seed rots in cold waterlogged ground.
Solo
It wants free draining, cool soil that is not acid, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.5. Waterlogged soil rots the seed. No nitrogen fertiliser. It is a good rotation opener, because it leaves nitrogen in the soil for the next crop.
Clima
It is a dryland legume, drought and heat tolerant, and one of the few that put up with poor soil and dry summers without irrigation. It germinates and grows well in the cool of late winter and stands light frost when young. It flowers in May and June and fills its grain in the heat of June and July, which does it no harm: what hurts it is damp weather at flowering and ripening. On the Portuguese coast and in southern Spain sow in February and harvest in June, choosing the sunniest airiest spot. Inland in Portugal and Spain, from Beira Baixa to the Alentejo, it is a traditional crop: sow in February or March, to use the winter moisture, and harvest dry in June or July. In France and Germany sow in March or April, as soon as the soil can be worked, and count on a dry summer for the grain to ripen; where summers are wet the harvest is uncertain. In Italy follow the Iberian calendar in the centre and south and the French one in the north.
Fertilização
It fixes its own nitrogen through root nodule bacteria, so it should not be given nitrogen fertiliser. Add mature compost only if the soil is poor and, if needed, a little wood ash for potassium. Feeding nitrogen is the classic mistake with this crop: it produces huge plants with few pods.
Rega
It is a dryland crop and in a normal year needs no irrigation. One supporting watering at flowering, if the spring is very dry, improves grain fill. Do not water near harvest, because the grain has to dry on the plant.
Controlo de Infestantes
Hoe often and always shallowly, because the roots are short, near the surface and break easily. The best method is to prepare the bed two or three weeks in advance, let the first flush of weeds germinate, remove it and only then sow: that gives you a decisive head start. A thin layer of sieved compost between the rows greatly reduces later work.
Controlo de Pragas
Aphids gather on the soft shoots and the flowering tips and weaken the plant badly: cut off the affected tips and apply potassium soap at the end of the day. Slugs and snails devour newly emerged seedlings, which is the main cause of gaps in the row: protect with an ash barrier for the first two weeks. Birds pull up seeds and shoots and are dealt with using netting or a light fleece over the row until the plants are ten centimetres tall. Also watch for thrips and for grubs boring into the pods, and remove any damaged pods.
Doenças
Powdery mildew is practically unavoidable late in the cycle as the weather warms: it covers the leaves with white bloom and dries the plant out. Sowing early is the best prevention, and potassium bicarbonate slows it down. Downy mildew and anthracnose appear in damp weather, and root rot in cold waterlogged soil. Use a four year rotation away from other legumes.
Colheita
Make a single harvest, as dry grain. Wait for the plant to yellow and the pods to turn brown and dry, in June or July, and pull whole plants on a dry morning, before the pods split and drop the grain. Leave them to dry a few more days in the sun and thresh on a tarpaulin, beating or treading, and winnow in the wind. Store the grain well dried in a closed container and eat it soaked and cooked, like chickpeas. The reference colour is cream, and that is what tells you it is ready.
