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PROJECT TITLE Improving pea standability using inter-row seeding and plant growth regulators PROJECT LEAD Sheri Strydhorst, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry TOTAL VALUE OF PROJECT $482,000 FUNDING PARTNER Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund Back in 2011, Alberta Pulse Growers surveyed the province's farmers about what they saw as the most significant barriers to growing pulses. One of the most frequently cited production and agronomy barriers was lodging and its impact on harvest management. Growers want pulse crops that resist lodging and stay standing for easier harvests. Sheri Strydhorst, Barrhead-based Agronomy Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, believes that future pulse varieties will have gene-based standability traits. That's still some way off. In the meantime, if Strydhorst comes across a good standability idea, she's all ears. "Steve Larocque at Beyond Agronomy had been working on one idea for a while," Strydhorst said. "You seed your peas into standing wheat stubble, with the peas going in between the rows of wheat. At a point when the peas might be susceptible to lodging, the wheat stubble keeps them from lying down flat." Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs) are another possible way to prevent a crop from lying down, although no PGRs are currently registered on peas. A four-year study, led by Strydhorst and funded by Alberta Pulse Growers and others, has been working on both the wheat stubble idea and PGRs since 2014. In 2014, wheat was seeded to create the stubble treatments. Peas were seeded in 2015 – which was unfortunately a dry year with little lodging. TWO STUBBLE HEIGHTS CONSIDERED In 2016, the project looked at the standability of peas inter-row- seeded into 8-inch and 12-inch wheat stubble and a check area with no stubble, at two central Alberta sites. "What could happen is that the peas actually get taller because they are competing for light, and taller peas is not what we want," said Strydhorst. "We saw that where we had inter-row seeded, the stubble held up the peas." This tactic, of course, also requires some planning and extra work on the part of the producer because in the season prior to planting peas, harvest requires leaving sufficient stubble. The PGR component examined the performance of three different products. By applying a PGR in the first part of June, at the early reproductive stage of peas, the products will stop a plant hormone that makes the plant taller. So far, the PGRs are performing as expected without any reduction in yield or seed size, and that work will continue. For her part, Strydhorst sees positive progress from inter-row seeding and PGRs. Both, however, can be considered temporary measures until a more lasting genetic standability solution comes into focus. "Today it can take five days to harvest a quarter-section of peas," Strydhorst said. "If we can get that down to 3½ days, that's better but it's still not great. I think the tools in the toolbox are getting better but, at the end of the day, good standability genetics is what we need." Until better standability genetics arrive, pulse growers need other ways to keep their crops from lying down. Here are two ideas that could play a role. Wheat Stubble Aids Pea Standability Harvestability has long been recognized as an impediment to growing peas. Varieties have come a long way but how we manage our pea crops could potentially help to keep pea crops standing. 17 | Pulse Research Report GROW YIELD

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