Don't Want to Give Up the Peas?

[digitS']

Maybe, we don't have to.

The last of the peas came off the vines about 10 days ago. I'm not very tolerant of watching mildew destroy plants while I get a handful of something off the vines. Out they went! In went the bean seed ... I like snap beans. No question. Still, I'll miss the peas.

These are the hottest days of the year, hereabouts. I'm planning on being out there under the sun sowing snow peas, tomorrow.

Or, snap peas. I tried those in 2016 and, if anything, they did better than the snow peas. However, we had the wettest October in history last year. After the expected frost in September, the plants still in the garden had a healing rain. Several ... for weeks!

Don't be fooled by peas' reputation for frost hardiness, however. Cold weather will slow them down to nuthin! They need recovery time and if there are flowers when the frost hits, those will be lost. Still, peas don't have to just be an early season crop. They grow some under hot conditions. The vines aren't likely to be as robust but they can set themselves up for a fall crop. First the seed has to germinate and seedlings emerge during local conditions in the nineties and humidity in the teens. They have been able to do it, several years running. They are following my potato harvest again this year.

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I have two things I have tried to extend pea growth, though admittedly one doesn't really work well and the other doesn't really yield useful results.

One is to try and find pea strains from as far south as I can (or, for antipodean peas, as north) thinking those probably have the best heat resistance built in. So far the best I have been able to do is ones from Italy, but there may be ones even farther down (Greece maybe, or the Middle East?)

The other is to go for the smallest seeded peas I can find, since the smaller plants often mature faster. When I was in college I had a pea type I foraged out of bags that could go seed to seed in about 30-45 days (the only problem being the pea pods were about the size of the end of my pinkie)

*I'd look to India, but I think most of their peas are grown in the north, which is actually pretty cold. I also get tricked by the fact that, as you go farther south, peas move from being a crop you grow in the spring to one you grow over the winter, so I'm really looking for somewhere where even the winter is warmer than our summer usually is i.e. a true pea that grows in the full tropics.