Performance of grain legume crops in organic farms of central Italy

Summary

In the 2005-2006 growing season, eight varieties of faba bean, pea and lupin were compared in two organic farms, located in two regions of Central Italy (Tuscany and Marche), to evaluate their adaptation to local environment and agronomic performance in terms of grain yield and competitive ability against weeds. Pea showed a higher grain production than faba bean and lupin, which were negatively effected by the environmental conditions during winter 2005 and spring 2006. Time of seeding seems to be very important for the competitive ability against weed of the different varieties. In Tuscany the lupin Italian variety Multitalia, the only one Italian variety, obtained interesting performance in terms of grain yield and weed competition, although the spring seeding.