LandWISE Conference Presentation – Seeking consistent high pea yields
Farmers have noted drought-stressed pea crops can out-yield more vigorous ones. The stressed plants seem to have flowering curtailed, while vigorous ones continue flowering and have late pods and peas that will not be mature at harvest.
The MicroFarm group is looking at plant growth regulators to condense flowering and therefore the harvestable proportion of the crop.
Plant growth regulators control things such as shoot and root growth, internode length, flowering, fruit set and ripening. They are widely used in horticulture and have been used to manipulate flowering times.
We tried a few options that have shown to have effect elsewhere. It was a first look to see if this is something worth researching further. Interesting results from the early crops encouraged us to try again with the later planting. Encouraging reults from that point to further work.
Plant & Food Research technician Christina Waldon will present results to date