Evaluation of different organically cultivated grain legumes in Northern Germany

Summary

Field trials at the Thünen-Institute of Organic Farming in Northern Germany were conducted in the years 2011 to 2015 in a randomized block design with four replicates. Different grain legumes such as Vicia faba (field bean, cv Divine), Pisum sativum (pea, cv Respect), Lupinus angustifolius (blue lupin, cv Boruta) and L. albus (white lupin, cv Feodora) were compared to two varieties of Vicia sativa (common vetch, cv Ina and Slovena) as pure stand and intercropped with oat (cv Galaxy) and three different seed ratios (75% : 25%, 50% : 50% and 25% vetch : 75% oat of the respective seed rate in pure stand). In the years 2014 and 2015 peas, field beans and blue lupins were cultivated intercropped with 100% of the seed rate of grain legumes and 25% of the seed rate of oat.