Pea Profile

Pea is an annual climbing herb of the legume family, 0.5-2 meters high. The whole plant is green, smooth and hairless, covered with powder and cream. The leaves have 4-6 leaflets, the stipules are heart-shaped, and the lower edge has thin teeth. The leaflets are ovoid; the flowers are solitary in the leaf axils or arranged in racemes; the calyx is campanulate, and the lobes are lanceolate. The corolla color of pea varies from variety to variety, but mostly white and purple. The ovary of peas is glabrous, and the style is flat. The pods are swollen and oblong; the seeds are round, bluish-green, and turn yellow when dried. Flowering from June to July, fruiting from July to September.

Pea is native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia and is one of the most important cultivated crops in the world. Pea seeds, tender pods, and tender sprouts can be eaten. The seeds contain starch and oil, which can be used for medicinal purposes. They have strong, diuretic and antidiarrheal effects. The stems and leaves can cool and relieve heat and can be used as green manure, feed or fuel.

Pea morphological characteristics

Pea is an annual climbing herb, 0.5-2 meters high. The whole plant is green, smooth and hairless, covered with powder and cream.
The leaves have 4-6 lobules, the stipules are larger than the lobules, leaf-like, heart-shaped, and the lower edge has fine teeth. The leaflets are ovoid, 2-5 cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide. The flowers of pea are solitary in the leaf axils or arranged in racemes; the calyx is campanulate, 5-lobed deep, and the lobes are lanceolate. The corolla color of pea varies from species to species, but mostly white and purple, with two stamens. The pea ovary is glabrous, the style is flat, and the inner surface is bearded. The pod is swollen, oblong, 2.5-10 cm long, 0.7-14 cm wide, with a sharp tip and a straight back, with a hard paper inner skin; 2-10 seeds, round, blue-green, There are wrinkles or none, and turns yellow after drying. The flowering period of peas is from June to July, and the fruit period is from July to September.

Pea growth habit and growing environment and distribution

Pea is a semi-cold-tolerant crop. It likes a mild and humid climate and is not tolerant of heat. Pea is a long-day crop, which loves temperature and has poor drought resistance. Pea has wide adaptability to soil and does not require high soil quality. Sandy loam and loam with strong water retention, good aeration and rich in humus are the most suitable. The ph value is 6.0-7.2.
Peas are mainly distributed in the central, northeast and other regions of China. The main producing areas are Sichuan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Qinghai, Jiangxi and other provinces. Peas are native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia Minor regions and are mainly scattered in Asia and Europe.

Pea efficacy and role

Edible value of peas

Fresh and tender stems, pods, and green beans are popular off-season vegetables. Dry peas is processed and finely milled. Smooth round peas are used as raw materials. The seed coat, cotyledon and germ of pea are separated by a specific machine combination process and then ground separately to obtain edible fiber powder, cotyledon powder and germ powder. The edible fiber powder ground from the seed coat can be used as an additive for edible fiber in bread or nutritious foods to improve the bulkiness of food and promote human digestion. Cotyledon powder and germ powder are widely used in the production of baby foods, healthy foods and flavored foods. They are both commonly used natural emulsifiers and lysine enhancers. In addition, dry peas can also extract pea protein concentrate. Pea protein powder can be used as an enhancer for foods such as bread to increase its protein content and biological value. It can also be used to make vermicelli and send pea sprouts. The processing of green peas and pod peas can be canned, dehydrated and quick frozen. Among them, quick-frozen green peas and pod peas are legume vegetables commonly consumed in Europe, America and Southeast Asia. The production of pea snacks, pea yellow, pea cake food, is characterized by sweetness and delicious, beneficial to the spleen and stomach, antipyretic, and toxin. Pea food has the effects of clearing away heat, detoxifying, and diuresis, especially for patients with diabetes and postpartum lactation. Can also make fried snack foods.

The nutritional value of peas

Peas have more comprehensive and balanced nutrition. Pea seeds are composed of the seed coat, cotyledon and embryo. The protein, fat, carbohydrate and mineral nutrients contained in dry pea cotyledons accounted for 96%, 77%, and 89% of the total amount of these nutrients in the grains, respectively. Although embryos contain protein and mineral elements, their proportion in the grain is very small. The seed coat contains most of the carbohydrates in the seeds that cannot be digested and utilized, and the content of calcium and phosphorus is also higher. According to reports, the biological content of pea protein is 48%~64%, and the efficacy ratio is 0.6-1.2, which is higher than that of soybean. The reason why the nutritional value of pea protein cannot be fully utilized is its poor digestibility.

The medicinal value of peas

Peas are sweet and have a certain therapeutic effect on an athlete's foot, carbuncle, breast milk obstruction, spleen and stomach discomfort, hiccups, vomiting, abdominal pain, thirst and diarrhea.
Pea is sweet and flat in nature, has the effect of promoting urination and detoxification. Peas cooking can produce body fluid to quench thirst, clear breasts and reduce swelling. Juicing and drinking fresh peas can cure diabetes. Pea powder is applied to the affected area to treat carbuncle and hemorrhoids. Green peas and pod peas are rich in vitamin C, which can effectively prevent bleeding gums and prevent colds.

Pea cultivation

Cultivation system

Avoid continuous cropping of peas. After continuous cropping, it can cause toxic effects on the following peas and aggravate the occurrence of diseases and insect pests. Therefore, peas are usually rotated with other crops. White-flowered pea varieties are more resistant to continuous cropping than purple-flowered varieties, and their rotation period needs to be longer. Peas can also be mixed and intercropped with other crops.

Land selection

Drip irrigation cultivation has a lower demand for soil, which is conducive to the survival of pea seedlings and the growth of crops. Therefore, the soil with a deep soil layer, light soil salinity and medium-fertility can be planted.

Loose soil and fertilize

After sowing, the soil should be loosened several times to increase the ground temperature to promote root growth. The pea seedlings are strong and cultivated in autumn. The soil should be cultivated before overwintering to keep the soil and weeds in time after the spring to increase the ground temperature. Before the pea blooms, water small water and fast-acting nitrogen fertilizer to accelerate the growth of pea plants, promote the separation technique, and then loosen the soil to protect the moisture. When the stems begin to sit on the pods, the amount of watering is increased slightly, and phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are added. The soil should always be kept moist during the pod-setting period. Ensure the water is needed for pod development. At the later stage of the pod setting, the bean seedlings should be closed to reduce watering. When the vine plant is 30 cm high, start the stent. Peas are harvested in batches, and fertilizer is applied once for each harvest.

Fertilize

After the peas emerge, check the seedlings to fill the gaps in time, and weeding 1-2 times in the field. Re-apply topdressing in the seedling stage, especially for fields where no or less base fertilizer is applied, generally 5-7.5 kg of compound fertilizer or 5 kg of urea or 1000 kg of decomposed human feces per acre. For high-stalked varieties, when the temperature rises in spring and the pea plants begin to grow, insert small bamboo shoots or branches with branches between the rows so that the bean plants can climb and grow. Peas are not tolerant to water stains, so pay attention to ditch drainage in spring. There are many nutrients needed for flowering and pod formation. Apply 7.5 kg of urea and 5 kg of ternary compound fertilizer per mu. Spray 1% urea and 0.3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate twice during the bulging period.

Timely harvest

The harvest time is determined according to the way of eating. Generally, peas for grain are harvested 15-18 days after flowering when the seeds are full, dry peas are harvested when 70%-80% of the pods are withered, and vegetable peas are harvested when the tender pods do not appear 12-14 days after flowering. For pea seedlings about 30 days after sowing, the top tender shoots are picked when the seedling height is 18 cm. Those used as fodder are harvested in the blooming period, and those used as green manure should be pressed in time after harvesting the pods.