Author Topic: growing & saving peas  (Read 11955 times)

1066

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growing & saving peas
« on: February 26, 2011, 08:03:38 »
Hi
I have some great varieties of peas to grow this year that I got from swaps on here  8), many are climbers, but my conundrum is that I only have a handful of each variety, and I've been wondering about how best to grow them on for seed saving.  

Basically I was going to grow them in a single bed up canes etc (never grown climbing peas before so not sure what will be best), but in order to be able to save seeds I'll need to separate them somehow so I can work out which is which type. And as I don't just want to leave large gaps was trying to think of what I could grow up the canes alongside them? Maybe a squash? or something like Morning Glory?

Maybe someone on here has a better / brighter idea as to how to grow them all for seed saving so that come mid / late summer I'm not puzzling over which one was which. And how do you grow your climbing peas?

FYI - they are Robinson's Purple, WinterKeef, Carruther's Purple Podded, Simpson's Special, Serpette Guilloteau. I do have others but I have more of those and was thinking of growing them up wigwam thingies  :)

Thanks, and hope this makes sense!

1066  :)

aj

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2011, 08:10:33 »
I use a Munty frame and put a climbing bean in between each.

Or I sow them in squares and put 4 canes around the outside, the peas grow up the middle and I tie twine at 1 foot intervals around the canes keeps them all inside. You can get about 16 plants in a square with 4 canes doing it that way.

1066

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2011, 08:12:33 »
thanks aj, the square sounds very practical, and won't take up heaps of room or canes.

Will have to look at Munty Frame images to remind myself what they are !

jennym

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2011, 08:12:56 »
Haven't done it myself, but for helping to make really sure your peas breed true I'd guess that they could be fleeced, I believe they are self pollinating so this shouldn't cause a problem.

aj

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2011, 08:21:55 »
The peas are pollinated before the flower opens - so there isn't an issue with them breeding true - however it is heartbreaking to pop open all your lovely heritage peas open and find pea moth grubs; if you grow in the cage style, you can easily bung large fleeces over your more rare peas....

I''m growing a load of rare peas again this year if I can get them to germinate - and will be fleecing them as I get sick of the flippin pea moth getting in there.....

grannyjanny

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2011, 08:47:07 »
I've just googled Munty frame. It makes sense & I get the gist of it but the comments I saw said it needs to be facing due south. We can't do it at the plot as we would block light from next door. Is it absolutely essential to go that way? I think they did something similar on Beech Grove a couple of years ago.

goodlife

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2011, 09:39:06 »
 1066..if you have lots of climbers but not in quantity you could try something silmilar that I'm doing..
I make wigwams with canes and grow one climbing variety per wigwam..but I mix it climbing beans..one half of the circle for each ;)
[attachment=1]

1066

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2011, 10:04:34 »
thanks for the extra info, I'd forgotten about Pea Moths, which is a bit ridiculous as I was reading about them the other day!! I'm presuming the fleece you use is the standard stuff - I have some but tend to only use it for protection from frosts.

Goodlife, thanks for the photos, makes it nice and clear to me, a thousand words and all that. Now why didn't I think of growing french beans! Something like the Brolottis would be good, nice and obvious!!

GrannyJanny, every year I say I'm going to build / try a Munty frame, and every year (so far) I haven't done it. One of the things is, as you mentioned, shading other areas. I don't have a problem shading out my neighbours (I'm in a corner) but would have a problem of shading other growing areas..... I also look at the space underneath them, and I know some people grow lettuce and the like (using all available space) but I didn't  have much success with this. Maybe it would make a nice seating area, shaded from the sun, in summer  ;D

As a novice to tall peas  :D I'm presuming they produce tendrils that will cling on to anything available? was planning on using string and canes  :-\

1 other question while I'm on the subject, when do you start your heritage / special peas off? Don't want to loose them to frosts!

Thanks again, really appreciate the ideas and experiences

1066  :)

aj

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2011, 10:08:39 »
They need to face south because when the peas or beans grow above the vertical side, they need to grow towards the light to utilise the slanted space.

I grow dwarf beans usually under mine, and this year I'll be growing spuds. The reason for this frame is to utilise the space, if you don't use it it isn't worth it. If the frame is on the north side, then the top area doesn't shade the underneath crops at all.

I have one on a middle bed, and the bed next door doesn't get shaded at all; so as long as it isn't too tall there should be no worries about blocking light....due to the angle of the slanted space - sun still gets to the next bed

grannyjanny

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2011, 14:22:38 »
I've been pondering about this & I think it might be possible. At the top of our plot we have an 8' wide bed & the other side of it is our neighbours compost bins. So all is not lost ;D.

Robert_Brenchley

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2011, 15:35:12 »
I grow one variety per wigwam, unless they're varieties I only have a few seeds of. In that case, I grow two, but make sure I can tell them apart. You could grow Robinson's and Simpson up one, and Carruther's and Serpette up the other, as it's so easy to tell the green and purple pods apart.

1066

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2011, 17:43:45 »
Ah beans and spuds, good idea aj  :)
and thank you Robert! All making a lot more sense now!
Between us (you) I now have some schemes and stratgeies to grow these lovely varieties.

So a communal crossed fingers for no late frosts, no pea moths, and some light rain in the evenings and sun in the day  ;D  ;D  ;D .......

1066  :)

galina

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2011, 17:45:48 »
I use the 4 canes method for tall varieties where I have small amounts of seeds, such as the 10 seeds from an HSL packet.  Then wind garden twine around the outside of the canes and occasionally diagonally across to hold the growing peas in place inside the 4 canes.  It is a corrall.  Yes, peas have tendrils but they don't hang on to canes like twining beans do.  They need the support from twine around the canes to stay put.

I used to sow outside late March and found that over half the peas rotted, then our mouse problem got worse and all outside sown peas disappeared.  The peas that made it got maggotty.  So I learned that early sowings escape the attentions of the pea moth by and large.  Now I sow indoors in February (ie 4 days ago this year) and transplant a few pea plants together underneath a bottle cloche 4-6 weeks later.  Sometimes I throw a fleece over the bottles if we get really cold weather.  As a result I have good germination, timely planting out and save most plants from the dratted mice.  Plus no pea moth damage at all on the early and mid harvest pods.   Really rare peas I plant one plant per bottle cloche, and let them grow through the top of the bottle, so the mice don't nip them off at ground level.   But that only works for tall peas or tall beans.

I suggest you start now and start indoors in cases where you have only a few peas.  Peas can survive a bit of frost, only  a heavy snow covering would snap and kill the young plants or very waterlogged ground.  Best of luck.

galina

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2011, 17:47:49 »
Ah beans and spuds, good idea aj  :)
and thank you Robert! All making a lot more sense now!
Between us (you) I now have some schemes and stratgeies to grow these lovely varieties.

So a communal crossed fingers for no late frosts, no pea moths, and some light rain in the evenings and sun in the day  ;D  ;D  ;D .......

1066  :)
Don't worry about frosts, peas are not like beans, they can happily tolerate a few degrees of frost and if it gets to minus 10 again, like we had in December, then they will still survive cloched and fleeced.

PS:  Carruther's PP were the first to germinate today, thanks Robert
« Last Edit: February 26, 2011, 17:52:30 by galina »

artichoke

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2011, 18:22:32 »
I soak peas first and when a root starts to show, they go into a gutter of compost, stopped both ends with duck tape. When they are big and strong they go onto allotment into a groove scraped to match the gutter.

I admit I am hopeless at sliding them out of the gutter in the approved manner - I gouge them out in big trowelfuls and put them into the groove in pieces. I can either plant them in a square as described, or in a row, and I too have found that two rows of sticks tied together at the top, with string wound along both sides to corrall them, works well.

I tend to protect the peas against birds etc with tunnels of netting for a week or two, then add the sticks and string.

It seems to me a labour-saving way to get early peas into the ground without mouse or bird attack.

Debs

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #15 on: February 27, 2011, 10:03:57 »
I have never grown peas before, but have heard it is possible to grow them

from pack of supermarket dried ones &  just happen to have a packet of dried

marrowfat ones in larder - so have a couple of questions:-

a) is it possible?

b) are they climbers?

c) indoor or outdoor sowings (when)

d) Are they harvested when in pods or when dried (or both?)

All help, as ever, gratefully received 

Debs  :-*

grannyjanny

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #16 on: February 27, 2011, 10:06:46 »
I'm sure I read on this forum that someone has done it. Someone who is clever & can do links will be along soon. You can also grow pea shoots from them.

saddad

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2011, 10:08:52 »
a) yes
b) depends but I would provide support to 5-6'
c)outdoor, end of March
d) either... but they probably don't taste great fresh...   :)
Yes I'm sure these questions have been up before... but I'm not savvy enough to look for the link..  :-[

grannyjanny

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2011, 10:14:57 »
Relief. Thanks David, I'm not the only one ;D.

galina

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Re: growing & saving peas
« Reply #19 on: February 27, 2011, 11:08:52 »
a) is it possible?
b) are they climbers?
c) indoor or outdoor sowings (when)
d) Are they harvested when in pods or when dried (or both?)

All help, as ever, gratefully received  

Debs  :-*
Debs,  
as they are commercially harvested peas, they are unlikely to be climbers, because combine harvesters can't cope with tall peas.  I do not know whether they will be self supporting or whether they will benefit from short twiggy hedge prunings or short sticks to help support them.  You can add supports later if necessary.  

Sow indoors or outdoors - for pea shoots (young pea foliage) something like a window box would be great.  If you type pea shoots into the search box, you should be able to find the old posts.  One thread is here:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,58490.0.html

All marrowfat are fairly sweet peas, but bigger than the tiny peas (petit pois) from the frozen food department.  More like what they sell as 'garden peas'.  

When the pods are very young, they can be harvested as mangetouts.  Later woody bits develop in the pods and you have to wait for the peas to develop inside.  After shelling out the peas, woody pods can still be used for peapod wine or for vegetable stock.

Unless they have been in the larder for umpteen years, they should germinate, even though damp warm kitchens are not  the best places for seed storage.  Good luck  :)
« Last Edit: February 27, 2011, 11:19:31 by galina »

 

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