Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: small on March 13, 2015, 15:10:10
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For years, I've used canes and chicken wire to give peas something to cling onto, and every year the whole lot collapses by the end of the season. It doesn't seem to affect the crop, but looks a mess! We have available a quantity of rigid weldmesh (ex-chicken run) and I wondered has anyone used this for peas?
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Sorry, cant say that I've used that stuff...but I can't see why you could not use it.
I've made some supports from metal stock fencing..just length of fencing turned into hoop shape and the ends fastened together, couple of canes pushed through to keep it all in place and job done. That stuff in sturdy enough to hold the weight of the plants AND enviromesh netting (to keep birds away)....doesn't rot and I've even stacked and tied couple 'hoops' together to support tall growing peas :icon_cheers:
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I do as you can see here;
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/27th%20June%202014/LatePeas_zps0d83db56.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/tgalmanac/media/27th%20June%202014/LatePeas_zps0d83db56.jpg.html)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/27th%20June%202014/EarlyPeas_zps01875e33.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/tgalmanac/media/27th%20June%202014/EarlyPeas_zps01875e33.jpg.html)
When I grew lots of Chrysants & Dahlias I laid it horizontally!
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/06-June/6th-Chrysanthemumbed.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/tgalmanac/media/06-June/6th-Chrysanthemumbed.jpg.html)
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We do too, but as we grow heritage peas, almost all over 6' we need two runs one above the other!
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You cant beat the traditional hazel pea stick. There are literally thousands of acres of neglected former coppice and individual hazel stubbs along hedgerows that could and should be used for pea boughs and many other purposes to maintain the life of this entirely renewing resource.If you do not have the inclination or ability to seek out a source for harvesting, approach one of the many agencies, wild life trusts,charcoal burners, and County councils who promote such activities. If you can find a source of hazel bean sticks, there is , generally ,a pea bough atop each.
I'm growing Realseeds Standard of England peas, and have found some 9ft pea boughs for them . Only problem unsolved- how do I get up to pick them!
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Thanks all, I think I'll give it a go. Ancellsfarmer, I've failed miserably in the past with using hazel (got quite a few hazel trees on the land), maybe you could post a photo or two when you've got this year's up and running?
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I've just been looking through my old photos and found one example of my pea supports..
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I've just been looking through my old photos and found one example of my pea supports..
What was the nature of your failure? Please clarify.
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I've just been looking through my old photos and found one example of my pea supports..
What was the nature of your failure? Please clarify.
I think you got 'wrong end of the stick'....earlier on the post I mentioned using stock fencing for my peas supports..and to show 'Small' (original poster with 'failure') I posted the photo for.
..actually that particular pea crop with its supports was far from failure..only issue I had was the variety I was growing there, not the nicest of the mange touts.
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I use a similar system to Tee Gee but use chicken wire with lamp holder support. The chicken wire has lasted some 35 years and when the crop is pulled up the wire is just rolled up. The rows are either 20 or 30 ft. long.
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I've just been looking through my old photos and found one example of my pea supports..
What was the nature of your failure? Please clarify.
I think you got 'wrong end of the stick'....earlier on the post I mentioned using stock fencing for my peas supports..and to show 'Small' (original poster with 'failure') I posted the photo for.
..actually that particular pea crop with its supports was far from failure..only issue I had was the variety I was growing there, not the nicest of the mange touts.
I think I got the wrong end of the quote button.
Apologies Goodlife, it was Smalls posting that I wished to clarify!
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What an honour to be confused with Goodlife!
Ancellsfarmer: it's a long while ago, but as far as I remember the peas didn't cling very well, needed too much 'help,', and once they got some size, the whole lot fell over just as badly, and at the end of the season the sorting out of pea haulm for compost and hazel twigs for bonfire was a faff...but I suppose we all find the ways that suit us in the end...
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.................but as far as I remember the peas didn't cling very well, needed too much 'help,', and once they got some size, the whole lot fell over just as badly, and at the end of the season the sorting out of pea haulm for compost and hazel twigs for bonfire was a faff...but I suppose we all find the ways that suit us in the end...
Yep! I accept that I have to tie them up. I grow mostly the tall varieties in 'corral' fashion. Tall bamboos in the corners, the peas in the centre and periodically I feed string round the outside and tie in any that have gone outside the corralled area. A chickenwire double 'fence' would make it easier, but I get by with my way. I start off with long lengths of string and leave the ends uncut, so the string for the next feed-around is already there.
Pea sticks are a good idea to get small plants started or for short varieties just to get them gripping on to something as they start to grow.
To address this problem, Alan Kapuler has bred a few varieties with modified tendrils (which he calls hypertendrils - a mass of tendrils which cling to supports or other plants better than the usual pea tendrils). But even those I need to tie up (on our slightly windy site).
http://peaceseedslive.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2015-seed-list-from-peace-seeds.html
:wave:
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Only problem unsolved- how do I get up to pick them!
As they crop from about 3-4' pick and eat/freeze as far up as you can reach and save the rest for seed!
:wave:
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here are my self supporting peas dont know what variety they are but i grow them every year and they taste great
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I have used an old recycled "love seat" frame and tied wire mesh over it for my peas to climb on then let them fall over the edge. It is about 1800mm high.
My usual method is to use tall star pickets (about 2100mm out of the ground) and tie baling twine horizontal from post to post about 250mm apart. Spans of 2-3 metres not too bad but too heavy at 4 metres.
With 9 foot high vines why not let them topple over once they get to 2 metres then let them grow up again when they get close to the ground.
I also use vertical strings from a bar for beans but peas wont hang onto these.
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I have an old ELC swing frame... as the boys are now in their 20's it makes a good frame for climbing veg... :wave:
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I have an old ELC swing frame... as the boys are now in their 20's it makes a good frame for climbing veg... :wave:
Brilliant idea! I might see if anyone has one of Freecycle.
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I use my kids old swing in this manner
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/04-April/BeanampPeaframes_zpseae4ceff.jpg)
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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.
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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?
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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?
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Not sure to be honest I was busy with vine weevil destruction and had the radio on!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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It's a shame pea sticks only really work for dwarf peas. Next to useless for my 7ft monsters once they start shooting upwards!
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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 (http://www.wilko.com/screening+trellis/wilko-clem-climb-support-grn5mx500mm/invt/0063756)) ... 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!
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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 :)
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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. :BangHead:
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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!
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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. :wave: