PCF Is Participating in the 2025-26 Cover Crop Breeding Network On-Farm Winter Pea Trial

Pea cover crop in late September 2025 at the Community Farm

Pea cover crop in early October 2025 at the Community Farm

During the fall of 2025-spring of 2026 Partridge Creek Farm will be participating in a winter pea cover crop trial through the Cover Crop Breeding Network. This trial will review the growing results of 2 pea varieties planted at the Community Farm in the fall of 2025 and will be harvested in the spring of 2026.

According to the Cover Crop Breeding Network *the goals of this trial are to:

• Test new cover crop winter pea varieties from the Cover Crop Breeding Network against commercially-available varieties that were well liked in 2024-25 on-farm trials.

• Offer low-risk way to try winter peas as a fall crop.

• Build a grower network interested in trialing improved cover crop varieties.

Partridge Creek Farm planted these 2 varieties in 2 16ft rows at the Community Farm in Mid-September.

*The information above is quoted directly from the Cover Crop Breeding Network 2025-26 ON-Farm Winter Pea Trial Protocol

More About The Trial

Trial Timeline

The trial timeline begins in late September 2025 where the pea varieties should be planted. During this late fall period the farmer will record information on germination, fall vigor, and flavor and texture.

In Spring of 2026 the farmer will record information on winter survival (i.e. how many plants of each variety survived), spring vigor, and flavor and texture.

Then, in late spring of 2026 when the farmer is terminating crops to plant summer produce they should record information on biomass.

PCF will be reporting on this trial in November of 2025, in the early spring of 2026, and the late spring of 2026. Stay tuned to see the prgress!