The Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) has added 11 new pea and bean varieties to its 2024 Descriptive List for pulses.
A total of six combining peas, two winter beans and three spring beans have completed the requisite number of years in trials and demonstrated the necessary qualities for inclusion.
Dr Chris Judge noted that the varieties grown across the country demonstrated good consistency in terms of yield and impressive disease resistance despite going through heatwaves, cold snaps and a wide variety of temperatures and conditions.
“The control yield for peas, spring beans and winter beans were all very similar to the 2023 Descriptive List,” Mr Guest said. “Looking at the five years currently used in the datasets, yields were slightly down in 2023 compared to 2022 for all three pulse groups.”
New pink category added to combining pea varieties
Two yellow combining peas – Concerto and Batist – are the new top-yielding varieties producing 115% and 113% of the control respectively. KWS Flam is the other new yellow pea, yielding 110%.
A new pink pea category has been created for the Descriptive List to accommodate the new variety Flamingo. In trials, it was the lowest-yielding pea listed (78%).
Shazam and Reacher are the two green peas making their debut on the list, and both have good all-round qualities in terms of yield and disease resistance.
In the marrowfat category Vision, has become the highest yielder achieving 100% of the control.
Synergy and Navara top new spring bean list
In 2023 many winter bean trials struggled with frost damage after two cold snaps in short succession last winter. Despite this, harvest conditions were good in the summer and two new varieties – LG Arctic and Ninja – have completed their ascent to the Descriptive List.
Conversely, spring bean trials suffered in the heat. The hotter-than-average June led to similar yields to 2022 when heatwaves also struck during key stages of crop development. Synergy is the highest yielding of the three varieties entering the list for 2024 (107%), closely followed by Navara which yielded 106%, and LG Hawk which returned 101%
