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Harvesting peas is an enjoyable activity on the one hand, and incredibly long and dreary on the other. When the time comes to harvest beans, you should stock up on patience, a hat, light-colored clothing, or rent a combine that will do everything for you. We will talk about how to harvest when the harvest of green peas begins in this article.
Terms of maturation
Most varieties of peas take 12-14 weeks from planting to harvest. If the variety is late ripening, then you will have to wait 15-16 weeks. After the pea plantations have faded, and the first blades have formed, you can start harvesting.
Peas are a multi-harvest crop, so the shoulder blades must be harvested every 2-3 days, starting from the bottom.
If your goal is shoulder blades, then you can collect them 10-11 days after flowering. In the case when you need peas, you will have to wait 13-15 days. It is at this time that they contain the most sugar, which increases their culinary value.
What is the best time to harvest green peas? As soon as possible, because overripe shoulder blades and peas slow down the growth of new ones. With the naked eye, it is fairly easy to tell when to start picking: the pods will develop a white, mesh-like coating that precedes the drying of the pod.
Collection process
After the plant has formed the blades, you can make the first collection. According to the method of harvesting green peas, they are completely manual and automated when combines are involved.
Do-it-yourself cleaning should be done carefully, holding the stems and tearing off the shoulder blades, so as not to damage the plant. You need to walk carefully along the beds so as not to damage the shoots. It is also worth deliberately picking the beds one by one, and not wandering between them, because this way you can miss a lot of pods that simply dry out.
A combine is a good way not only to speed up the process of harvesting peas, but also to facilitate the subsequent processing of the beds. The work in this case is carried out in a complex way, the plant is completely mowed from the garden. After the green mass is subjected to milling in stationary or mobile threshers.
And even using a combine, peas can be harvested in two ways: separately and directly (by combining). When harvested separately, the plants are mowed so that rollers are obtained. They are then loaded into a trailer, taken to a threshing machine and processed there. You can speed up the process by using a combine loader. At the same time, the rollers roll down and are immediately ground in the loader. Direct combining means that the green mass of peas is not rolled into rollers, but is immediately sent for grinding.
At the moment, harvesters are well enough modernized to process peas with little or no loss or damage to the fruit.
To harvest the blades, self-propelled harvesters Ploeger, FMC Technologies Inc., PMC Harvesters Ltd. are used. They consist of a frame, a header, a container for collecting fruits, an engine, a chassis, a hydraulic system and a cab. Most models are suitable not only for pea beds, but also for the collection of other crops.
To collect seeds for drying or subsequent germination, PMC harvesters HarvEsters Ltd 979-ST, Ploeger ERD 538/540, OHVO 2440/6156 are used. These models are equipped with frame, header, thresher, haulm conveyors, cleaning conveyors, elevator, container, cab and process control system. For grinding peas, special drums with beaters inside are used.
When the crop is harvested
After the crop is harvested, it is important to immediately cut the tops and send them for processing. The root part of the peas is dug up and left to rot in the ground. They do this in order to reduce the consumption of fertilizers, since the tops of peas provide sufficient fertilizer, increasing soil fertility. The fact is that bacteria develop in the rhizosphere of the plant, which contribute to the accumulation of nitrogen in the soil.
The peas themselves must be processed immediately. First, rinse the pods in cool water and let the water drain. After that, start peeling the pods, collecting peas in a deep bowl. It is better to freeze them later in order to preserve their beneficial properties as much as possible. Another option is to eat or use in cooking.
In the case of industrial harvesting of peas, it is necessary to wash the crop, additionally clean it from the tops and send it for processing. Part of the peas can be used for subsequent germination or dried to be used in cooking.
The heat treatment of this crop is carried out for 2-3 minutes, since the peas are quickly cooked. Scald it in boiling water, rinse with cold water, dry and put in the oven. Dry it there for 10-12 minutes at a temperature of 45 ° C, leave it to cool for an hour and a half, and then place it again in a cabinet with a temperature of 60 ° C. Ready-to-storage peas are dark green, shriveled.
To prevent insects from spoiling stored peas, store them in glass jars with metal lids. The fact is that pests easily gnaw through paper, fabric and plastic bags.
You can cook peas with any vegetables. It looks good in stews, soups, cereals, vegetable casseroles. Often, peas are salted, so that later they can be used instead of seeds or nuts, as a light snack.
Video “Processing peas after harvesting”
From this video you will learn what manipulations should be carried out with peas between harvesting and storing it.
