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Sugar Pea Harvest June 28, 2010

Posted by rik94566 in aquaponics, Crop, Sugar Peas, Yield Results.
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Last pick of season

These are the last Sugar Peas of this season.  Now its time to determine how productive my 3.5 square feet of grow space was.   At the end of 90 days of growth on Oregon Sugar variety.  Harvest was a total of 5 pounds of peas.  I had no idea if this was a good number or how it related to normal ag production, so I researched sugar pea yields to determine how productive my 3.5 square feet of  grow area.  This research took me to the link listed below:

http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/7233.pdf

Edible-Pod Pea Production in California.

I learned from this publication that average Edible-Pod Peas get 25,000 plants per acre with 2.6 tons (5200 pounds) of edible pods.  I visited Whole Foods and determined the market price for edible pods was $5.00 per pound or equal to $26,000.00 per acre.  On a per square foot figure this works out to be .5 plants and $0.59 per square foot.

Now that I have a starting point on average production figures I can work out how my yield per square foot matched up with California average yield. 

Taking my 5 pounds of production in 3.5 square feet I produced 1.42 pounds per square feet.  My number of plants per square feet was 8. 

Before I work out the comparison of my yield and the average production per acre it would be good to view the growth I got from my plants.  The variety I grew was listed to grow 60 to 72 inches.  I got 108 inches (9 feet) would have been more, but a late season rain storm can through Northern California in late May and broke the top growth off 5 of my plants.  

Sugar Pea Height

 Production in my 3.5 square feet of grow area would have been much greater had I had my upper level of the sugar peas tied back.  A lesson learned and I will make sure to keep up with the growth.

COMPARISON OF YIELD:  (on a per acre basis)

Aquaponic unit  vs California Edible-Pod Pea average yield

Plants per acre —        95,8 32                               25,000

Tons per acre —               31.0                                     2.62     

Gross Value   —        $309,276.00                     $26,000.00   

The gross value is determined by using a $5.00 per pound price found at Whole Foods in San Ramon, California.

Additional pictures of Sugar Pea Pods:

Close-up of Sugar Peas growth

Different View of Plants