Erste Ergebnisse eines Artenvergleichs von Erbsen und Ackerbohnen

Organic farmers have to take the decision which grain legume specie is the best for their site. The existing recommendations are based on variety tests and studies on cropping systems. The best grain leg¬ume specie on one site has not been investigated. The aim of this work is to test field pea and faba bean on one and the same site. In 2011/2012 these two species were sown in autumn and in spring, as well as in pure stand and in mixture with cereals (for the field pea) in a field trial. Hardiness of the winter crops and yield were assessed. Winter field pea in mixture with triticale had the highest hardiness and was significantly different from field pea in pure stand and from faba bean. Spring faba bean was the crop with the highest yield and had no significant difference from the winter form and the spring field pea. Results show that it is important to test different grain legume species on one and the same site.