The Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) has announced that 14 varieties of peas and beans have been added to the Descriptive List.
Launching at Croptec, the list sees new entrants top the spring bean varieties, as well as the marrowfat, green and yellow combining peas categories.
The Descriptive List is funded by the pulse levy and uses a rolling dataset of five years, with varieties needing a minimum of three years of trial data before being eligible.
PGRO senior technical officer Dr Chris Judge said: “The five-year control yield for peas, spring beans and winter beans are broadly similar to those for the 2024 Descriptive List.
“The pea yield decreased due to losing the high-yielding year of 2019 from the analysis, and a strong year for beans in 2024 increased the bean control slightly – beans seemed to perform well in 2024 due to the summer having fewer extreme weather events.”
He added that two main themes were emerging from the work done this year. “The performance of the new pea and bean varieties is the first thing to note. They have performed excellently.
“The second is that lots of new yellow peas are being tested for the UK. Yellows are very popular in continental Europe but have always been a relatively smaller crop area in the UK. But with increasing interest in home-grown protein, there is room for the yellow pea growing area to expand.”
New entrants
Seven yellow combining peas were added to the list; KWS Bram (KWS), Marler (Cope Seeds & Grain), NOS Blondie (Elsoms), Captur (Agrovista), Bellair (IARA), LG Corvet (Limagrain), and Bonham (Senova).
There was also a new green pea variety, Pangea from NPZ, which is the highest-yielding variety in that category, yielding 114%. For marrowfat, NPZ’s latest variety, Midori, achieved 103%.
Miro, from Senova, is an early maturing variety and joins the winter bean list. It has an above-average yield of 101% and the joint highest chocolate spot rating, ranked at 7.
Winter bean trials struggled in 2024 due to the persistent wet weather, with two trials abandoned completely.
For spring beans, four new varieties have been added; Notilus (Senova), LG Eagle, (Limagrain UK), Ketu and Loki (NPZ).
Overall the list remains a similar size to last year, due to varieties leaving after discussions with the breeders. These include Victus, Vertigo, and the early variety Yukon.
For more information go to www.pgro.org