Green Pea Advice Please

[retiredwith4acres]

The last two years of raising green snap peas have been a disappointment. I just got the second small meal from them today and they are already beginning to die. Small meals are fine because I like to cook them with my fresh new potatoes and it doesn't take a lot for a meal but I would like to have more, bigger, and especially for them to last longer in the season. Yes, it has been hotter than usual but last year they did the same thing. Is there a blight or disease that might be the problem or is it just our bad gardening practices or something? Any help would be appreciated because I will try them again in the fall to see if I can do better. I love my green peas! Would like any suggestions for varieties that others find good producers. How about varieties of snow peas, might try them also. I am in zone 6b. Also, recipes or favorite ways of cooking them would be nice.

 

[lesa]

They really are cool weather lovers....probably just too warm. They also don't produce for very long. I planted three times as many this year, as I did last- in the hopes that I might actually get a decent amount. Mine still haven't flowered. I think you are smart to try again in the cooler fall weather. They are yummy!

 

[retiredwith4acres]

I had just said to my husband a few minutes ago that I was going to plant three times as many next time. lol

 

[ducks4you]

Mine are doing well, deSPITE the ridiculously warm weather. Did I say, "WARM", instead of HOT, HOT, HOT?!?!? It's gonna be 98 this Saturday.
They need lots and lots of water. I've been a slave to watering them, but the ones I planted in March along the old cattle fence (by the street) started flowering last week, and they're climbing the fence for me.
I tried them last year, forgot about them, and found that the ones that were shaded came up, flowered and fruited for me. I was able to get 2 meals from THOSE.
I understand that you have to pick EVERYTHING off of them to keep them flowering.
IMO, it's best, when you harvest, to just throw the excess on the lawn or between your beds. It will save you time and the "debris" will make it's way back into the soil or into your lawn.

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmm... wish I had advice for snow and snap peas. We just plant them in mid march (they do survive a layer of snow for a few days) and they produce like gang busters all the way till mid july. Last year our summer was so cool they lasted till about august when we got our first day of 75F day time high. Had our family not gone to california and we could water them daily... they might have made it till fall. LOL. Never time enough to plant more than one crop. Think the long cool soggy PNW weather allows them to be prolific out here. I usually do Oregon sugar pod II and oregon giant something? Packets say 64 days or something, but with long cool spring, it's usually 110-130 before the first peas are picked.

 

[catjac1975]

Mammoth melting is a large pea pod and is 6' tall so it's easy to pick. We always grow sugar snaps. As soon as the hot weather comes in they are doomed. You can try a fall crop and see if you have better luck.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ok. Peas.

There are lots more varieties than you think. Lots. And they are, many of them, very different from one another.

I think what you want to do is PLANT MORE for one thing. A lot more.

Peas are a great intercrop plant. They can be in with things like:
Bush Beans
Pole Beans
Corn
Kale
Broccoli
And probably a lot of other things.

Those things do not have to be extra wide spaced to fit them in either, just not extra tight either.

Native Seed Search has about 10 varieties of Peas that are suited for surprisingly hot desert climates.

Peas can be planted SURPRISINGLY early. Just cover the seedbed with clear plastic held in place with stones at the edges. I tuck soil over the edges in my raised beds. Slice X 's in the plastic with scissors every 4 to 8 inches, and tuck in 3 seeds per hole. I planted my peas 3 weeks before my first Beans and Corn, so that was the dare the frost to come date. It didn't come.

In places where it suddenly gets hot, I'd go another 3 to 6 weeks earlier, and set another layer of plastic over them at nightfall.

WELL WATERED PEAS CAN TAKE A GOOD AMOUNT OF HOT. They will need to be in very loose composty soil.

Peas enjoy stuff like liquid kelp and fish emulsion diluted properly. Peas do seem to enjoy the parts of my soil that have lots of ash in it mixed in with compost.

I planted my Peas to face the morning sun where they get less sun in the afternoon.

I really like Peas a lot too! Can you tell?

Grow a bunch of varieties. Alaska is a good quick one. Golden Sweet makes an enjoyable plant to grow that looks good and the flower even has a nice smell. There are several purple varieties. Blauschokker is a good one, but I understand there is a snow podded purple one out there now. Purple and Gold peas are fun. Alderman is a good vigorous variety. I've yet to try Mr. Big, but I will soon enough.

Go to that Native Seed Search site to get some desert adapted peas too. You'll be planting them all over your garden next year. Baker Creek has some, and most grocery stores have good varieties. Google peas to find the sources i'm forgetting.

Try planting some 75 and 60 days before your first light frosts too. Sooner if you can water them plenty and give them liquid organic fertilizers. They don't need it strong.

Growing peas in 2 words:

WATER OFTEN

 

[seedcorn]

Plant early as you can get them in the ground. I'm amazed that you get any at all that far south. You are doing well. It's the reason my g'parents didn't but planted black eyed peas. I don't but I miss them.

 

[digitS']

Try Sugar Snaps, '4acres. One variety of the snap peas or another - they are pretty special and can work well with creamed peas & new potatoes just like shell peas.

Funny that some are going for 3x more peas this year. I have less than 1/3rd of usual. Something went wrong last year! I never figured out what. I think there was a problem in the roots and they just didn't want to grow. Even the rabbit didn't want them. Not wanting to grow & rabbit-ignored - 1st time for both, that I can remember. They are doing fine this year in a different garden, the One-Third, that is.

Snow peas planted 2 months before frost will give me pea pods by (during) frost. Two months before frost is likely to be the hottest week of the year around here. They do germinate and will begin to grow more as it cools off.

They won't make much growth once the frosts show up and it will kill their blooms. However, you can harvest the growing tips & use them if it looks like the season is really coming to a close. They make kind of a tangled mess of greens but the flavor is just like peas ! You can also put them in a salad.

Peas aren't a terribly productive crop - by the square foot. It is really kind of nice to be able to harvest pods for the kitchen rather than just the seeds. I've also found that those wrinkly English-type peas are just a little harder to get started than their smooth-seeded relatives .

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Google Annalissa, "slow food"
Get the Annalissa site. They have a few varieties of heirloom Peas I really want to get.
The Southwest desert Peas I will indeed be ordering. One variety hails from a small mountaintop village in the middle of Mexico.

I will be trying to obtain some Peas from the Nordgen seed vault project.