Assessment of the agronomic potential of dual‐use winter‐hardy peas in Northern New England: Cold tolerance and production challenges for harvestable cover cropping peas

Abstract Cover crops play a significant role in improving and maintaining good soil quality. However, there are often some agronomic and cost challenges associated with successfully establishing cover crops. In Northeastern regions of the United States, abiotic stressors such as cold affect and high costs limit uptake of the practice. Using two field trials, a high tunnel study, and laboratory methods, we investigated the possibility of growing improved winter peas ( Pisum sativum L.) as a cash cover crop in Northeastern regions of the United States. Results of the field trial showed no significant variance in winter survival between the winter pea genotypes tested. The genotypes tested include cold‐hardy cultivars traditionally cultivated for forage and improved winter pea breeding lines selected for edible traits. In two field trial seasons of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, all genotypes reached their reproductive stage in the first week of June when seeded the previous year around the end of September in Vermont. Our results show that although peas are a viable overwinter crop allowing potential double cropping. However, the mid‐June maturity date for dry or fresh pea harvest conflicts with spring planting of cash crops on many Vermont and Northeastern farms, greatly limiting the potential of double cropping to increase winter cover cropping uptake. Consequently, some reported barriers to winter cover crop adoption in the far Northeast, such as high seed cost and time constraints, cannot easily be solved by double cropping.