Pulse growers have more choice with seven new peas and five beans making their debut on the variety list, offering higher yields and better disease resistance.

The Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) unveiled the 2024 Descriptive Lists, which see a new pink pea category, the introduction of chocolate spot ratings in winter beans plus two high-yielding yellow peas at 13-15% above control.

See also: Video: Grower completes world’s first Capulet bean harvest

Spring beans

Starting with spring beans, there are three new additions, with Synergy from Saaten Union leading the pack with a yield of 107%.

It is closely followed by Navara from Senova at 106%, and Limagrain’s Hawk achieved 101%.

PGRO senior technical officer Dr Chris Judge points out that Synergy’s high yield – just 1% behind top yielder Genius – makes it the highest-yielding low-vicine and low-convicine variety (LVC), outyielding the other two LVC varieties, Futura and Victus.

Vicine and convicine are anti-nutritional compounds that can limit inclusion rates in animal feed. Therefore, bean varieties with LVC are much better for animals, particularly monogastrics such as pigs and poultry.

Navara also has a 6 rating for rust, the second best of the varieties on the list. It has a 5 for downy mildew, while both Synergy and Hawk have less resistance at 3.

Of the existing varieties, Chris highlights Yukon, which has the best downy mildew rating (8) and is the earliest-maturing spring variety.

Peas

This year sees three new yellow pea varieties, Concerto, Batist and Flam.

Both Concerto from LSPB and Senova’s Batist are very high-yielding, taking the top two spots at 115% and 113%, respectively. Flam is also above average at 110%.

This year there is a new pink bean category, and Flamingo is the first variety in this group.

While its yield is lower at 78%, both it and Concerto join Ajax with a downy mildew rating of 7, just behind Rivoli, which has an 8.

Batist © Senova

Flamingo is aimed at specialist markets and seed is being distributed in the UK by Cope Seeds and Grain.

Seeds director Gemma Clarke explains that it is a pink pea that’s early to mature, with good standing ability.

“Its unique pink colour remains even after cooking, which presents great human consumption market potential.”

One company marketing these pink peas to consumers is novel premium crop specialist Hodmedod.

It says pink peas make superb hummus and can be substituted in recipes for other whole peas, especially whole yellow or blue peas, or for chickpeas.

In the green category, Reader and Shazam join the list at 97% and 101%.

Shazam is a later-maturing variety with the joint longest straw length (87cm), although it has good standing ability (7).

Chris adds that Reacher has resistance genes for pea seed-borne mosaic virus and pea enation mosaic virus, and it joins Aviator as the only green pea with resistance to powdery mildew.

Carrington (LSPB) remains the top-yielding green pea at 111%.

In the marrowfat category, newcomer Vision from Elsom Seeds tops the list at 100%. It also has the highest downy mildew rating of 7.

Winter beans

This year sees the first chocolate spot disease ratings on the list. Chris says they are not seeing strong varietal differences, although two stand out.

Vespa, which is the highest yielder, and Vincent have the highest ratings of 7 and 6, respectively.

Moving to the newcomers, Artic from Limagrain and Ninja from Senova make their debut.

Arctic has an above-average yield at 104% and has the joint-highest downy mildew rating on the list (6).

While Ninja is a bit behind on yield, Chris points out that it gives growers another early-maturing option.

As well as having the earliest maturity (8), Ninja has the highest protein content of all the winter beans (27.3%).

Senova’s managing director, Tom Tewbrey, says that while Ninja adds to the winter bean options available to growers, seed won’t be available immediately.

However, there are plenty of other Senova variety choices for 2024.

See the full descriptive lists at the PGRO website.