This year's peas

[flowerbug]

i planted the peas in mid-April. they're blooming and putting on some nice pods now. they've been so good it's hard not to eat them all. i was hoping to increase my seed supply, but i suspect i may be lucky on that point with the way things are going.

what i tried to do was plant one variety, but the seeds were not segregated to begin with so some have been mixed in with what i planted that are not exactly what i was after, but they're still good to eat.

i planted two rows so the plants could lean on each other for support there are no other supports for these and they are between 3-4ft high. i wish i'd have planted a few more rows of these.

i'm too tired to get a picture of them but if i remember i'll get one tomorrow, but in the meantime you can see what they looked like on the 23rd of June (they are the green pile in about the middle of this picture):

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how well this would work for you but when I want to renew my seeds for my production snap beans I designate a few plants and never eat any of their beans. The rest are fair game. I renewed seeds last year. I'm not this year and probably won't next year, but I can see renewing again in 2023.

 

[flowerbug]

I don't know how well this would work for you but when I want to renew my seeds for my production snap beans I designate a few plants and never eat any of their beans. The rest are fair game. I renewed seeds last year. I'm not this year and probably won't next year, but I can see renewing again in 2023.

if i'm growing bulk amounts what i do is select seeds as i am shelling and put those in a separate container. i do not want to select from a small number of plants because to me that means i'm narrowing the genetics and approaching monocultural habits (does that make sense to you?).

in this specific case i've only grown these seeds once before so i am still in the process of selecting and have a mixed seed source so that means it may take a few more years before i get them sorted out. i don't have a huge amount of seed to work with so i didn't plant it all this season. next year i'll plant the rest of it and continue to work with this year's results too. always more projects to work on. eventually i just hope to have enough of a decent quality to be able to pass them on to others. they are certainly worth that effort. especially when you get pods like this and the plants are sufficiently self-supporting:

 

[flowerbug]

i did get a few pictures today from two sides to show how tall the plants are already plus that the two rows are supporting each other perfectly.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

if i'm growing bulk amounts what i do is select seeds as i am shelling and put those in a separate container. i do not want to select from a small number of plants because to me that means i'm narrowing the genetics and approaching monocultural habits (does that make sense to you?).

in this specific case i've only grown these seeds once before so i am still in the process of selecting and have a mixed seed source so that means it may take a few more years before i get them sorted out. i don't have a huge amount of seed to work with so i didn't plant it all this season. next year i'll plant the rest of it and continue to work with this year's results too. always more projects to work on. eventually i just hope to have enough of a decent quality to be able to pass them on to others. they are certainly worth that effort. especially when you get pods like this and the plants are sufficiently self-supporting:

Godzilla Bean?

 

[heirloomgal]

if i'm growing bulk amounts what i do is select seeds as i am shelling and put those in a separate container. i do not want to select from a small number of plants because to me that means i'm narrowing the genetics and approaching monocultural habits (does that make sense to you?).

in this specific case i've only grown these seeds once before so i am still in the process of selecting and have a mixed seed source so that means it may take a few more years before i get them sorted out. i don't have a huge amount of seed to work with so i didn't plant it all this season. next year i'll plant the rest of it and continue to work with this year's results too. always more projects to work on. eventually i just hope to have enough of a decent quality to be able to pass them on to others. they are certainly worth that effort. especially when you get pods like this and the plants are sufficiently self-supporting:

What pea variety are you growing? Snap or snow peas?

 

[flowerbug]

What pea variety are you growing? Snap or snow peas?

one of them in the mix is called "Green Beauty" and is a snow pea, but i have been eating them as the peas get bigger and i still like them.

another in the mix is called Bijou.

and there is another name written on the package which i'm not sure i can read completely, hmm, Carouby de Maussane, ok, yes, that's the name.

as of yet i'm not really keeping them apart by flower type as they are all mixed in the same package of seeds. when i harvest them this season i hope i can at least keep them apart by plant by following some of the stems and then i will plant next season grouped by parent plant and have a better chance of then keeping them apart again.

i know i had a decent sized container of seeds from last year that i harvested and then planted from, but right now i can't find it (cleaning up and trying to get things better organized didn't help me with that one container for sure!) to know how many i have left from when i planted this spring. and i have the original package of seeds to finish planting so that should all be enough to keep working with, but i really have to keep myself from eating more of these pods this year and that's tough.

the largest of these is supposed to grow 6-8ft tall. i can believe it. unsupported they're mostly doing ok and lasting into July. i expect them to start dying back in the next several weeks, but after the next few hot days we're back to cooler temperatures so perhaps they'll go longer. we'll see...

one thing i should try to do while they are still flowering is get some closer up pictures of the flowers, i didn't have very good light yesterday so perhaps today will be better.

 

[Ridgerunner]

if i'm growing bulk amounts what i do is select seeds as i am shelling and put those in a separate container. i do not want to select from a small number of plants because to me that means i'm narrowing the genetics and approaching monocultural habits (does that make sense to you?).

That makes perfect sense and is what I did when I was growing dried beans in bulk, Black Turtle Beans specifically because that is what my wife wanted. I don't grow dried beans in bulk anymore, lack of growing room and I use the excess from the segregating project beans as dried beans. With those, when I can, I select by plant to limit the genetics and maybe get the most vigorous plants. Then when I think I'm getting stability I open seed saving back up to confirm they are stable. One hint that I might want to save seeds by plant is when different plants in that row have different colored flowers.

I specifically mentioned snap beans though that was easy to miss. I'm not trying to get nitpicky. Down here I can often get two bean seasons though I'm beginning to wonder about this year, it's been strange. If I eat green beans until I stop I would tie up that raised bed all summer. I tried that one year but I kept eating on them so late that dried bean production was horrible. So I select four or five very vigorous plants on one area and just let them go to seed from the start. I get a good seed bean harvest from four or five different plants and figure I'm OK on the genetic diversity. And I eat green beans until they stop producing, I don't have to try timing anything.

 

[heirloomgal]

The pic in post #3 looks like Carouby de Maussane, that's my guess. I saw 'Green Beauty' for sale this year, looks like a good one to try. I peas!

one of them in the mix is called "Green Beauty" and is a snow pea, but i have been eating them as the peas get bigger and i still like them.

another in the mix is called Bijou.

and there is another name written on the package which i'm not sure i can read completely, hmm, Carouby de Maussane, ok, yes, that's the name.

as of yet i'm not really keeping them apart by flower type as they are all mixed in the same package of seeds. when i harvest them this season i hope i can at least keep them apart by plant by following some of the stems and then i will plant next season grouped by parent plant and have a better chance of then keeping them apart again.

i know i had a decent sized container of seeds from last year that i harvested and then planted from, but right now i can't find it (cleaning up and trying to get things better organized didn't help me with that one container for sure!) to know how many i have left from when i planted this spring. and i have the original package of seeds to finish planting so that should all be enough to keep working with, but i really have to keep myself from eating more of these pods this year and that's tough.

the largest of these is supposed to grow 6-8ft tall. i can believe it. unsupported they're mostly doing ok and lasting into July. i expect them to start dying back in the next several weeks, but after the next few hot days we're back to cooler temperatures so perhaps they'll go longer. we'll see...

one thing i should try to do while they are still flowering is get some closer up pictures of the flowers, i didn't have very good light yesterday so perhaps today will be better.

 

[flowerbug]

The pic in post #3 looks like Carouby de Maussane, that's my guess. I saw 'Green Beauty' for sale this year, looks like a good one to try. I peas!

i am so happy just to have any of the big podded peas that actually grow for me. in the past i've tried several others and aside from barely germinating often they just didn't produce much at all let alone give me enough seeds to continue growing them further.

this mix hit the ground running last year and that result was why i decided to let my other pea varieties take break for the season while i tried to sort these out better.