Topic: Pea support question

[pumkinlover]

I was listening to GQT and they were saying that peas like something firm to climb up rather than the mesh nets that you can buy. Any one noticed this?

[galina]

I was listening to GQT and they were saying that peas like something firm to climb up rather than the mesh nets that you can buy. Any one noticed this?

Were they talking about tall peas or about the shorter varieties?

[pumkinlover]

Not sure to be honest I was busy with vine weevil destruction and had the radio on!

[goodlife]

Hmm....well...I've used some of that plastic pea netting in past...NOTE 'in past' and without much success. So there might be something to it...since I started with more robust supports, I've had much better results.
Not only that....I hate ripping into that plastic mesh in the end of year..no matter how carefully one try to untangle it all it just gets court all manner of pointy things around you...VERY irritating!

[Silverleaf]

I have to admit with my tall peas I just stick a few canes in and add a few twiggy dead raspberry canes until the plants get big enough to start flopping outwards. Then I tie them up loosely with string or plant ties or whatever's handy.

I've never used mesh, I'm worried that birds might get caught up in it.* How do you pick peas through the mesh?

*I found a young sparrow once dangling from some kind of fine plastic mesh or string or similar. It had dislocated its leg and the leg was almost severed. I took it to my local wildlife-friendly vet who said it was in too much pain and distress and that we should euthanise. It made me very sad.

[ACE]

There is a school of thought that climbing plants do not like bare metal. They will use it but not as vigorously as a wooden support. A lot of metal growing structures are plastic covered so the tendril of the plant will not touch bare metal. Might be an old wives tale but when we 'decorated' a bamboo clump with barley twist re-enforcing rods stuck in the ground to stick up and fan out through the bamboo I did notice the dreaded bindweed did not grow so vigorously on the ironwork as it did on the bamboo. Something to do with static I heard.

I'm a pea stick fan, just bushy twigs stuck in the ground does me.

[Silverleaf]

It's a shame pea sticks only really work for dwarf peas. Next to useless for my 7ft monsters once they start shooting upwards!

[ACE]

The simple answer is to pinch out the tips and let them grow sideways. New shoots appear at the nip off point so no loss of crops, in fact more should grow at the level you can reach them to pick. I would expect the pods ripen and spoil quicker up high in the sun than they do down in the shady undergrowth.

[kGarden]

I need to figure out how to make that kind of structure upside down, so it's like a V shape rather than an A shape, to save space in my raised beds.

I use an X-Frame of canes - crossing low down - so that the beans hang "clear" of the foliage for picking.  The top needs supporting though - canes along their length and support (string will do) from side-to-side (to stop the weight on one side being ably to drag the canes down)

[Silverleaf]

The simple answer is to pinch out the tips and let them grow sideways. New shoots appear at the nip off point so no loss of crops, in fact more should grow at the level you can reach them to pick. I would expect the pods ripen and spoil quicker up high in the sun than they do down in the shady undergrowth.

I'd be worried that I'd have to space them out more if I did that, or risk mildew hitting them even earlier than usual. And I have very limited space, which is why I go for tall peas in the first place - much more productive per set area than short ones.

[squeezyjohn]

I've tried pea and bean netting - essentially the same kind of cheap netting sold for crop cover at garden centres and it just doesn't work for me ... it ends up falling over, full of holes when you try and untangle the haulms at the end of the season and it's a danger to birds.  I also grow mainly tall varieties that need good support.

Last year I got some sturdier stuff cheaply from wilkos (This sort of thing) ... it's a stiff plastic trellis material sold in rolls and designed to be used for climbing plants up walls I think.  I just wove some bamboo in and out of the holes at various intervals and stuck them in the ground ... it stayed standing all season, was easy to clear at the end and is good to go this year too!

[kGarden]

was easy to clear at the end

I think that's an important consideration for any support that will be reused ... and I expect often overlooked - until the end of the first season :)

[galina]

was easy to clear at the end

I think that's an important consideration for any support that will be reused ... and I expect often overlooked - until the end of the first season :)

Unfortunately Squeezyjohn it is only 50cm tall , so no good for tall varieties. 

[squeezyjohn]

it is taller if you turn it the other way round!  I overlapped, using the bamboo to weave the joins together - it was taller than me - and I'm 6ft!

[galina]

it is taller if you turn it the other way round!  I overlapped, using the bamboo to weave the joins together - it was taller than me - and I'm 6ft!

Of course - that is a good way to support peas.  And the overlap weave makes it very secure.