Winter Pea

Last season we tried Winterberry winter pea but it did not survive the winter (it was a though winter for other fall crops as well). The peas got quite big last season and had tillers growing as large as the main stem which may have hurt it over winter.
This season we are trying Winterberry again and they are smaller going into winter as you can see in the picture above. with tillers just starting.
The goal of trying winter peas would be to change water use patterns allowing for bigger yields per unit of water or rain as well as have a crop that rotates well with winter crops allowing similar times of water use and or a silage blend companion. We do see a lot of nodules in the fall but the picture up top doesn't show the nodules well.