Kern 464 Peas

Kern 464 is an improved pencil-type vegetable pea for the Rabi season, grown for three to four pickings of well-filled, tender green pods with around 9–10 seeds each.

Sowing window

• Punjab, Haryana (post-paddy): October – mid November · hard deadline 15 November
• Western UP plains: mid October – mid November · deadline 1st week of December
• Bihar / East UP: October – mid November · deadline late November
• MP Malwa (Gwalior belt) and Rajasthan: October – November · deadline late November
• Himachal / J&K lower hills: February – March as a spring crop · deadline mid April
• Why not earlier: PAU notes that wilt and stem-fly damage are very high in September sowings, which is why mid-October onward gives the best crop in the plains
• Rule of thumb: the deadline is not a suggestion. Late-sown pea meets heat at flowering and the crop can fail outright

How to sow

• Seed rate: 20–25 kg per acre (HAU gives 20–30 kg; PAU 30 kg for main-season varieties)
• Spacing: 30 cm between rows × 10 cm between plants. With a seed-cum-fertiliser pea drill, PAU sows two rows 25 cm apart on 60 cm ridges — the ridges help drainage in post-paddy fields
• Depth: 3–4 cm — deeper gives poor germination
• Palewa: give a pre-sowing irrigation, especially in post-paddy fields, and sow at vaapsa — workable moisture, not wet
• Soil pH: 6.0–7.5
• Seed treatment: treat the seed before sowing — a fungicide, a biological, and a Rhizobium inoculation. Most farmers skip the Rhizobium; it costs very little and helps the crop fix its own nitrogen. PAU doses: carbendazim 1 g or captan 2 g per kg of seed against wilt, then the Rhizobium culture — mix one acre packet in half a litre of water, rub it over the seed to coat every grain, dry in shade and sow the same day. It matters most in fields where pea has not been grown before
• Pack size: 1 kg

Manure and fertiliser (per acre)

• FYM: 6–8 tonnes worked in at final ploughing — for pencil-pea quality this genuinely matters
• Phosphorus: DAP 35 kg, or SSP 150–175 kg
• Potash: MOP 20–33 kg, by soil test
• Nitrogen: urea 22 kg, all as basal — pea fixes its own nitrogen after that
• PAU benchmark: 8 tonnes FYM, 20 kg N (45 kg urea) and 25 kg P₂O₅ (155 kg SSP) per acre, all before sowing; HAU gives 12 kg N and 20 kg P₂O₅. The DAP or SSP plus urea doses above deliver roughly this, so do not add more nitrogen on top

Water, weeds and pests

• Irrigation: 2–3 irrigations in the season. The one that decides the crop is the pre-flowering irrigation at day 25–30 — light, never flooded. Give a second one around pod fill if the soil is dry
• PAU schedule: sow into proper moisture and do not irrigate in the first 15 days; a light first irrigation about 15 days after sowing if the soil has dried, then at flowering and, only if needed, at pod set — 3–4 in all depending on soil and weather. Pea can even be grown rainfed with limited irrigation
• Weeds: weeds in the first 25 days cost you directly. Hand-weed in the day 15–20 window if you have not used a pre-emergent. PAU option: pendimethalin 30 EC, 1 litre per acre in 150–200 litres of water within 2 days of sowing, which also checks gulli danda; otherwise two hoeings at 4 and 8 weeks
• Aphids: appear after day 20. Spray only once you cross about five aphids per plant, as per label
• Thrips and leaf miner: thrips sting the young crop; leaf-miner tunnels show up in the leaves from December to March (PAU). Keep the field and bunds weed-free and do not overdo nitrogen — both are mostly a problem on over-fed crops
• Powdery mildew: start watching around day 35–40, especially in humid belts like East UP and Bihar
• Flowering: do not spray heavy chemicals during flowering — it kills the pollinators

Where it will not do well

Pea will not tolerate waterlogging. And sown after the deadline, it runs into heat at flowering — in that case choose another crop.

Harvest

• First picking: around day 60–65; total cycle 90–110 days
• Pickings: 3–4, roughly 8 days apart (pick 1 at day 60–70, pick 2 at 68–78, pick 3 at 76–86, pick 4 at 84–95)
• Ready to pick: when the pod colour shifts from dark green to slightly lighter and the pods are well filled but still tender. Do not let pods over-mature — PAU is blunt that it spoils the quality
• Pick early morning, before 9 AM, and pre-cool within four hours — in the heat the sugars turn to starch
• After the season: chop the residue and work it in as green manure for the wheat or sugarcane that follows

Day counts shift by 3–7 days with temperature, soil and sowing date, so treat them as stage markers rather than fixed dates.

Crop practices follow state agricultural university recommendations for North India; confirm doses for your district with your Kern dealer or KVK.

Please quote product code KERN-464 when ordering.

Agronomy helpline: 9107062062

किसानों की ज़ुबानी

कण 464 मटर — किसान रविन्द्र सैनी, पटौदी, गुरुग्राम