Garden Peas ..

Still pondering on growing some peas on the allotment ..

Am I likely to get a worthwhile crop?

If so what varieties would you recommend

I recall my father growing them through smaller branches that he gather when the local council used to prune the street trees ...Is this method still used ?

Dave

 

Peas come in two varieties: shelling and mangetout. Shelling peas mature at different times. Earlies take around 12 weeks, second earlies take 14 weeks and maincrops take 16 weeks. Shelling peas come in round and wrinkle-seeded varieties. Choose round seeds for hardiness and early sowings, and wrinkled for sweetness and summer sowings.

Peas require a sunny, nutrient-rich, moisture-retentive site. Dig over the soil and add plenty of compost or well-rotted manure - this will help to improve the soil's moisture-retaining ability in hot, dry summers.

Use bamboo canes, trellis or netting to create supports for plants.
Once peas have reached 5-8cm (2-3in) in height and their tendrils begin to reach out for support, place stakes next to plants.

 

Peas can be a very worthwhile crop though you really need to sow in succession if you want nice juicy fresh ones to eat.
As far as support is concerned much depends on the height of the variety you grow. I use fence posts with cross bars with ex-army phone cable running along the rows and then fasten either plastic pea netting or wide holed wire netting to the cable. The best supports I've seen were my dad's - he used stock fencing wire which was really strong, never bulged due to weight of crop and lasted for donkey's years.
Whatever supports you use, you'll probably need small pea sticks for support to start with and depending on your local bird population you may need some form of protection when seedlings emerge. Black cotton or fleece would do the job.
I hesitate to recommend specific varieties as much depends on the type of pea you like to eat and the height you feel you can grow. Best bet would be to browse some of the on-line catalogues.

If you end up with more peas han you can pick and eat fresh, you can always leave them to dry on the vine, shell them and then dry a bit more and then bag and store for winter use. We've just had some pea and ham soup made with peas we dehydrated last year.

 

I've grown peas in the past. I've always started them off indoors, each in their own tiny biodegradable pot. That way you don't have to worry about frost, slugs, birds getting to them before they've had chance to establish. Then when they're about 6 inches high, weather permitting, they go out. Being in biodegradable pots you just sink the whole pot in the ground so no root disturbance.

As for support, I just put loads of string between a couple of posts. Not a long lasting solution, but it works.

As for crop yield, definitely worth the effort, I got a couple of carrier bags full from a row about 20ft long. Although I must admit we don't bother shelling them and cooking them etc, they just got eaten straight out of the pods, which is the best way to eat peas I reckon.

Never had much trouble with birds nicking them. They pinched a few peas, but left plenty for us.

 

All that advice appreciated ..
Mrs Dave wants me to grow some so I will now make it so .
I will sort out some varieties and get sowing ..

Dave

 

Mice are fond of peas...especially around here so I start mine of in a piece of guttering which is then suspended in two loops of string hanging from the greenhouse roof. When they rach a couple of onches tall they are planted out by simply pushing the whole contents out of the guttering into a shallow trench. Then its back to the greenhouse to sow another gutter full.



You can just make out the gutter running from bottom right to top left in this photo.

Steve...

 

Hi Steve
Yes I've heard of this growing in guttering before. But I'd have to travel them from home to allotment ,a bit of a chore ..
Your tomatoes look good there Steve

Dave

 

Mice had all mine that i'd sown in the greenhouse, then started on the ones in the packet too:DOH:

Got some about 8" tall in a cloch, hopefully they'll be getting away soon, the sun is on them as I type

And another few plants in a sixinch pot on the window sill.[hr]

Is that a current photo Steve ? If so, you're doing well there

 

[size=large]I like your production Steve, I would like to get to something similar, if I will ever...[/size]

 

Photo is from the beggining of May last year..

Steve...[hr]

And taken the same day as the peas in the gutter, is a row growing on from a previous sowing. The piece of gutter is only two foot long, but successional sowing and growing gave us loads of peas. Not many made it to maturity though as we ate them as "Mange Tout", in fact...not many made it out of the garden.!



Sticks and wire is to stop our cats digging and using as a toilet.

Start of May last year and the greenhouse was full to capacity and bulging! Hopefully with a tunnel at the allotment this year, that will ease the burden.



Steve...

 

I've stapled some 150mm high strips of polythene dpm around the vertical timbers of my greenhouse staging so the pesky mice can't climb up and eat all my seeds.

 

Thanks everyone for you imput ..
Although most members seem to start off inside I don't have the spare space ..
I'm going to give them a try but they will have to go outdoors on the allotment .I could protect if neccesary whilst germinating ..

Dave

 

.

Steve,

You tomatoes gave me a fright, strong tall plants at this time of year, then all was revealed.

Seriously I have grown early peas, Oregon Sugar pod and Early Onward in spouting for a number of years but have reverted to sowing in pots as I found it nearly impossible to get them out of the spouting safely!
I have used both round and square guttering, I have used newspaper, thin cardboard polythene and kitchen shrink wrap to line the spouting with to no avail, the compost will not slide our at all.

What is your secret?

Cheers!