Agriculture & Food, Volume 9, 2021

Abstract: The importance of growing legumes is highlighted in many strategical documents. However, without adequate support for the production of grain legumes, production is less commercially attractive. In 2015, in EU 28 dry pulses were cultivated on 2.1 % of arable land (all together 107 million ha). In Slovenia, grain beans, second most important dry pulse in the country, are grown largely on hop fields in the Savinja Valley, in the years between the grubbing-up of the old and the planting of a new hop plantation. The grain yield at the treatment with half of the common rate of nitrogen (20 kg N/ha) for topdressing (at beans height 15 cm) and at the treatment with no N added for topdressing did not differ significantly from the yield at the treatments with full rate of N (40 kg N/ha). Therefore, the N amount of 20 kg/ha at sowing was sufficient under the experimental conditions and no nitrogen topdressing was required. Nmin soil content is advisable to be measured, followed by fertilization to the target value. Fertilizer with extended N release did not appear to have better impact on the grain yield compared to KAN fertilizer at the same N rate; however, the yield was more stable between the years at fertilizer with extended N release. The achieved yield of grain beans on the field experiment on a hop field was at all treatments and both years higher than the Slovenian (2.4 t/ha) and European average (1.8 t/ha to 2.6 t/ha); 2.7–3.0 t/ha depending on the treatment and the year.