Click Field Pea Desiccation and Harvest Guide – Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers for a great production resource full of information.
Here are some tips for staging pea fields for desiccation and harvest

Tip to remember % at the correct stages: Think of your golden years, starting to slow down when your 80 but not being ready to go in the bin until your 100.
Pea fields uneven or weedy?
They could benefit from desiccation, preharvest weed control or swathing to make them easier to harvest, but when? Look for pod color change by starting to check about 20 days after flowering. Scout the field in several places, but it is the least mature areas of the field that are the most important to check.
Peas are ready at full maturity, usually late July to early August when conditions are hot and dry.
- 80% pod colour change
- 80-90% leaf dry down
- with at least 75-80% of the plants in the field golden brown
- seed moisture less than 30%
Determining the evenness of maturity across a field that’s tough, but using a drone, or standing on the tailgate, or slowly cruising by might help.
Know the stage of your peas, by examining plants, noting differences from the bottom to the top. Imagine dividing the plants into thirds. Then comes the fun part, ripping, shaking and squeezing.


I want you to think Shake Rattle and Roll. The oldest peas in your field, those in the pods on the bottom one third of your plants, need to be ripped from the plant and shaken. The peas in those pods should rattle.
Move up plants to the pods in the middle third. Pods should be yellow. Rip them open and peas inside should be yellow as well.
Next to the pods in the upper third of plants. They should be wrinkled and have the feel of an orange peel. Open them and their seeds are should have a hint of colour change. Squeeze these peas between your finger and your thumb and they should split evenly under the pressure. That’s how you know is time to roll… across the field with the sprayer or swather. If seeds in the upper pods squash rather than split, then it is too early.
Harvest time
- 100% pods golden brown
- 100% leaves dried down
- top pods all have yellow seeds
- overall seed moisture less than 20%
- 16% is considered dry