Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Robert_Brenchley on July 01, 2010, 19:16:19
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I just picked the first few. Serpette Guillotteau is a round-seeded pea, about five feet high, currently covered in pods. It's not particularly sweet, but is prolific, and the peas are a decent size.
Bijou lives up to its title of 'Giant Sugar Pea' with tender pods around five inches long. Again it's a tall pea, and reasonably prolific.
Kent Blue is one I like more as a raw pea; its pods are the normal size, and very sweet. None of the peas are full-size yet, but the pods are good when they're at the half-grown stage. This one is about four feet high.
Carruther's Purple Podded is worth noting. There have been a lot of complaints on the site about purple-podded peas not being sweet. This one is. Another nice tall pea.
Anyone else growing interesting varieties?
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Sorry Robert,
Only stuck to the basic Kelvedon Wonder and boy has it done well for us this year. So many peas and to few meals to eat them. We have even taken them to school/work for nibbles. ;D
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our colossus are doing well, lots of pods and nice tasty peas, apart from them, the mummy peas are only just starting, telephono are great but 'ordinary', the smaller ones are lidl peas but lots of pods ;D
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We are growing two petit pois varieties. Waverex and Colibra. They do seem to be a bit mixed up together, but I picked my first pod today (Waverex) and the peas were lovely and sweet.
Don't tend to bother with the larger pea varieties as they tend to lose their sweetness.
Plants about 4' high, covered in flowers and pods. Hope we get a 'bit' of rain tonight to swell them up.
valmarg
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interetsing thread Robert. I'm trying, ok it was an impulse buy, Blauwschokker Peas - purple podded. A profusion of flowers and now have lots of pods - but from what I understand it's more of a marrowfat pea, but other sites suggest it's ok for eating (and not drying). Time will tell!! In fact looking at my standard peas, this is outstripping them by far!
1066 :)
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My Early Alaskan, Golden Sweet and Half Pint are now finished cropping, last ones are dried and soon all shelled for seeds....
I've got some Alderman, Telephone, Serpette, Carouby and Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow just flowering...and first ones just getting ready for a little nibble..oh and good old Sugar Snaps too.. ;D
I've just ordered some Vada and Dorian..which I'm going to try for late sowing...so as soon as they come I'm going to sow some..and maybe another lot of Half Pint too... ;D
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We have grown Bijou for the first time this year,I grumbled that it was a lot of plant for little crop however it's now cropping loads of huge pods so will definately grow it again .
Sorry Robert we're very boring with other peas for earlies it'e Feltham First and then we grow Greenshaft.
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Bijou lives up to its title of 'Giant Sugar Pea' with tender pods around five inches long. Again it's a tall pea, and reasonably prolific.
All the giant podded pea varieties I know have a maximum of 8 peas per pod, can you tell how many Bijou has? If not, please don't pod any on my behalf, the answer can wait until you do pod them.
Just curious about the relationship between peas in pod and pod length.
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Lancashire Lad is looking superb with its lovely purple pods which are just beginning to swell.
Victorian podded is also covered in purple pods, but is a week or so behind.
I am also growing Latvian which I read is used mainly for dried peas so I let them dry off and and see how they do.
Was also planning to sow Salmon flowered peas from seed saved from last year, but someone nicked them, as well as some other saved seeds, from my greenhouse >:( I am planning to take a wander around the allotment to see if they have appeared on another plot this year.
Apart from the previous heritage ones, I am growing Misty which always seem to produce a good crop.
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The Meteors are just about finished.... lovely raw when the pea is about half gfrown, but a bit bland when full sized.... Telephone are flowering now and some have pods showing, so should be soon....Dunno if I'll bother with Meteor again... yes they were quick to crop but I'd need to grow tons of the l;ittle sods to get enough to pick young enoiugh to be nice.....
chrisc
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Bijou lives up to its title of 'Giant Sugar Pea' with tender pods around five inches long. Again it's a tall pea, and reasonably prolific.
All the giant podded pea varieties I know have a maximum of 8 peas per pod, can you tell how many Bijou has? If not, please don't pod any on my behalf, the answer can wait until you do pod them.
Just curious about the relationship between peas in pod and pod length.
I'm pretty sure I had some pods with 9 peas earlier in the season, although 8 seems to be the most common. Has 8 been an absolute maximum in your experience? If I find another with 9 I shall take a photo. It's easy to count the seeds without opening the pods, as they are very lumpy, being completely without fibre, and easy to see through. I think Bijou has one or both of the genes lt and lat, which increases pod width, or leaf and pod size, respectively (according to the Pisum Gene List). I don't think they would have any bearing on the number of seeds.
It has done marvellously for me this year, 8ft tall, nice flowers and masses of enormous, tasty pods despite the complete lack of rain. I even left some to mature a bit, and cooked the swelled peas and the pods separately. I don't grow any beans and they made a great stand-in! The first sowing did take a while to get going - it was six foot before it threw any buds - but the later sowing has been much quicker.
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Lancs Lad; been picking for 3 weeks now and still doing so.
A random in the Lancs Lad pack; ditto, still coming strong.
Mummy's Pea for HSL; sown late and just beginning to form pods now.
Golden Sweet mange tout - been picking lovely golden pods for 2 weeks.
Eat All Mange Tout - ditto - nice big long pods; what a great find this packet was :D
Kelvedon Wonder - rubbish this year!
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All the giant podded pea varieties I know have a maximum of 8 peas per pod, can you tell how many Bijou has? If not, please don't pod any on my behalf, the answer can wait until you do pod them.
Just curious about the relationship between peas in pod and pod length.
8. I froze a few yesterday so it was easy to check. My mummy peas are just starting to flower, but they haven't done well. A lot of the peas I grew through the remains of the overwintering onions, and didn't mulch, have suffered in the drought. I'll get some pods off them though, as long as I keep the pigeons off!
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Goldensweet and Winterkefe have been great I’ve left some for seed which are hanging up to dry. I’m just about coming to the end of Caroby de Maussane, super large pods yum, I’m hoping (your seeds) Bijou will be taking over from them in about a week, I did sample one earlier, very nice. So far the plants are very similar to C.de M, although Bijou has not finshed growing yet. Galina, I've not counted more than eight seeds in either.
My favourite pea so far this year has been Alderman, super all round. But a few more to try yet ;D
Doug Bray of Grimsby for HSL is flowering and pods are just starting to form.
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oh boring choices for me as I always struggle with peas anyway - but MUST have them. Greenshaft have all been picked and frozen and Show Perfection (these are gorgeous peas) are heavy with pods, will start picking them tomorrow. The lack of rain is making everything suffer so I am going for a scorched earth policy of stripping everything and freezing, bottling or jamming. Just got another 10lbs of blackcurrants in a pan (hours of picking!) for cordial.
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Had a magic pea moment today,neighbours little girl had to work her way into the pea pod and could not believe there were peas inside........she ate and enjoyed.
Hope in the future she may remember that moment when she has a lottie of her own..........she takes a very keen interest in what is going on on our little plot.
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Im getting soooooooooooo many peas at the moment too.Eaten them twice today,a dinner this evening and I had minestrone soup for lunch and threw some extra peas in that too ;D
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Thank you Robert and Jayb and sorry for hijacking the topic of this post somewhat. It just occurred to me yesterday when I was podding a giant pod with 8 seeds and a smaller pod with 10 seeds, that one way of getting the giants even bigger could be to increase their number of seeds by crossing with a 10 seed variety :)
Here the large podded ones ie Schweizer Riesen, Eat All and Court Estate Gold have been early and good. We ate so many and put some more in the freezer. Court Estate Gold have been getting bright yellow leaves with the heat and drought. I have given them a drenching in the hope for a further flush of flowers and pods. The 3 varieties of capucijn grown this year have also been early and the pods are drying now. Lancashire Lad was interesting because the pods were free of parchment even at a large size, but before they swelled up. This variety can almost be used as a mangetout, tasty too. Weggiser as usual seems to shrug off heat very well. I am not eating any this year, they are all for seed. Golden Sweet is slowing down now, we picked a lot for eating but also left some early and some later pods for seed. Sugar Bon, Wando and Rheinischer Zucker are for seeds only. Laxton's Exquisite and some other shorter vined varieties have been raided by mice and not yielded many pods for eating or seedsaving. Amish Snap has provided us with loads of sweet snap pods. Much better than Sugar Bon. Magnum Bonum and Alderman are loaded with pods as is Ne Plus Ultra and we are about to start harvesting these. Looking forward to shelled peas, rather than mangetouts and snaps.
Betula, thanks for sharing the story and for letting the little girls snack on your peas in the first place. AHH
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My basic normal pea variety was Onward, a lovely sweet, thick podded, prolific pea that grew to about 4ft, it escaped alot of the pea moth damage. ;D
The golden sweet grew really well and fast to roughly 5ft, the mangetout pods lived up to their name and were lovely and sweet. I left alot to go on to peas, they tasted bland but would be fine in a soup, interestingly the pods from the full grown peas were still edible and still sweet, this thin podded pea suffered alot from the pea moths.
The purple podded pea - Desiree, slow growing, thick podded, short plants to roughly 3ft, peas tasted fine not as sweet as the Onward but not as bland as the Golden Sweet. Most of these are still to be harvested as the pods are slow in fattening up.
I didn't cross breed any of the peas, however I have noticed that the purple podded plants that remain, one of them has a mottled purple and green pod and then further down the stalk there are two totally green pods, further back the plant has the normal purple pods.
Does that mean this purple podded isn't totally stable or ..?
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Galina, if you have a few spare seeds available for swaps later on I'd be very interested in some of the peas you have listed :)
Interesting pea to pod size. Another thought and although less peas in the pod, what could be a likely outcome of a cross with a large pea size pea such as hugh's huge or Irish Preans?
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Be interesting to try! I know nothing about the genes involved, but you'd soon find out.
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Only growing Maro this year,but this Lady knows her peas http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/
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Does that mean this purple podded isn't totally stable or ..?
... or that this colour change is normal for older purple pods. Mine are not exactly green but definitely no longer purple.
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Galina, if you have a few spare seeds available for swaps later on I'd be very interested in some of the peas you have listed :)
pm me.
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Schw
you wrote:
I'm pretty sure I had some pods with 9 peas earlier in the season, although 8 seems to be the most common. Has 8 been an absolute maximum in your experience? If I find another with 9 I shall take a photo. end of quote
Yes 8 has been the maximum ever. When I first bred Court Estate Gold I did not even get 8 seeds, but in the last few generations it has always been 8 seeds maximum.
9 seeds would be exceptional indeed in my experience (not grown Bijou but other large podded varieties). Please save seed if you see it again.
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so far a fantastic year for peas - for us it has been meteor, misty and twinkle, all sown successionally but nearly all coming at once like the buses ;D so it is pick, eat and freeze all at the same time but not complaining :)
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I've noticed the pods on my Lancashire Lad going mottled as the peas reach full size.
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So are mine, RB
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Me too, Stephens and p.podded.
Hurrah, had another quick check of Caroby de Maussane this afternoon, found a couple of pods with nine seeds. I'll do my best not to eat them, hope the mice oblige too! I'll do a photo when they are a little bigger :) Shall I save you a pod Galina ;D
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I am reading this with great interest, I am a complete dunce when it comes to peas and can never find anyting when I look that I seem to believe should be there.
I would like to find a tall growing one that can be trellised but not a snap or sugar pea, just a regular pea that we pod.
I thought I had found it this year with Mr Big, supposed to get to 5 feet but then found out different growers claim different heights so I am back to square one!! The grower I got my seeds from says 30 inches but can grow 5 feet of trellissed, I got them late so never did get them in the ground. Hopefully for next year I can be ready and find something better.
Alderman is the only one available here and I am told it is very prone to a pea disease so not popular.
Tons of small plant ones available though, but I simply don't have the space.
I also noticed you are talking about number of peas in a pod, I have a couple of catalogues near me so looked up what it says for here. Don't know if this is just claims.. Alderman 8 or 9, Green Arrow 9 to 11 but only 28in plants.Sabre 8 to 10,Lazor 8 to 10, all small plants. Mr Big 9 to 10.
I think I need to start lookng in the SSE book for heirlooms.
As I said a dunce when it comes to peas.
XX Jeannine
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Me too, Stephens and p.podded.
Hurrah, had another quick check of Caroby de Maussane this afternoon, found a couple of pods with nine seeds. I'll do my best not to eat them, hope the mice oblige too! I'll do a photo when they are a little bigger :) Shall I save you a pod Galina ;D
Yes please.
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I would like to find a tall growing one that can be trellised but not a snap or sugar pea, just a regular pea that we pod.
I thought I had found it this year with Mr Big, supposed to get to 5 feet but then found out different growers claim different heights so I am back to square one!! The grower I got my seeds from says 30 inches but can grow 5 feet of trellissed, I got them late so never did get them in the ground. Hopefully for next year I can be ready and find something better.
Pea height varies. I swapped Dwarf Grey Sugar with a seed saver from Maine. The gardener in Maine got her seeds from another seedsaver in Colorado. The Colorado girl reported that the plants were tiny and needed absolutely no staking at all. In Maine the plants grew to 2 1/2ft and needed some staking. Here they grow to 4ft plus and need serious staking.
Latitude/sun angle affects pea length. If I sow late, I get shorter peas too. If it stays cool/rainy after planting out peas, they will grow taller than if it gets hot and sunny. If you like I can send you a few seeds each of several 6ft plus shelling peas to compare, but I can make no promises regarding height and disease resistance in the US.
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mm, isn't that strange. I do have Dwarf Grey Sugar too. If you have plenty of the seeds you mentioned I would like to try, but only if you have lots. I don't want to be pest and I am asking everyone about pea seeds it seems !!
This year all I planted was a mix of pea seeds, had several but all very old seeds, so I chucked them all together in a bed not expecting much and they seem to be growing well, bit late, all small growing types though.
Do I still have time to try the Mr Big?
Thank you for the help, one day I will understand peas!!!
XX Jeannine
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I would like to find a tall growing one that can be trellised but not a snap or sugar pea, just a regular pea that we pod.
XX Jeannine
This might be useful, will take alot of searching tho.
http://www.seeds.ca/hpd/cvlist.php?species=Pea&limit=500&records=1838
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Have had excellent results with peas this year, especially Kelvedon Wonder, tall growing 'Victorian Climbing Pea' and purple podded peas. I save the seed of purple podded peas and they do seem to cross pollinate so get some which are green podded and some mottled.
We grow a selection of peas on our schools plot, short growing ones, medium height, tall ones and purple podded ones to show that 'peas aren't just one type' - have a group of reception year children coming tomorrow to visit our allotments and try them and they helped plant the Kelvedon Wonder (short) ones on an earlier visit
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No, I don't think it's anything to do with how dry the pods are, all the rest of the pods are purple except these 3.
(http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/gallery/10575_04_07_10_2_58_28.jpg)
Purple podded peas - Desiree.
Front pod is Green/purple mottled and back two from same plant are totally green.
I am going to try and save the seeds, but there are only 2 in the mottled pod.
For the record, Onward produced an average of 8 in a pod, Golden Sweet also produced up to 8, the Purple Podded - Desiree never seemed to have big enough pods, peas all squashed together, average of 5 to a pod roughly.
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Well the first time in growing Kelvedon on my own ground has yielded an average of 6 peas to the pod which is not all that bad against yours Morality.
I am pleased with the numbers and did not expect the amount we have had.
I shall be trying different ones again next year in the hope that we like those too.
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my colossus is producing 10 peas per pod now, not going to pick any more, going to save them for seed :)
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Alderman is the only one available here and I am told it is very prone to a pea disease so not popular.
As I said a dunce when it comes to peas.
XX Jeannine
It does get mildew in late season, but it's one of the sweetest. Plant in May or early June and you won't have problems, at least over here.
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Just podded some Lancashire Lad - all 10 peas per pod and fewer maggots as well ;)
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Pea moths have been having a thin time the last few years, along with other insects. I've seen very few the last couple of summers.
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No, I don't think it's anything to do with how dry the pods are, all the rest of the pods are purple except these 3.
Purple podded peas - Desiree.
Front pod is Green/purple mottled and back two from same plant are totally green.
I am going to try and save the seeds, but there are only 2 in the mottled pod.
For the record, Onward produced an average of 8 in a pod, Golden Sweet also produced up to 8, the Purple Podded - Desiree never seemed to have big enough pods, peas all squashed together, average of 5 to a pod roughly.
You are right this is nothing like the fading to green that you get on mature purple pods. This looks like a mutation on that part of the plant. Mutations are fairly common in peas. I have never seen anything like the half purple half green pod. Yes I would save the seeds and grow them out next year. Fascinating.
I had a mutation to pink flowering one year. Just the one plant. And that mutation is fully stable. There are other mutations that only appear during the growing year and are not carried forward by the seeds.
Thanks for showing us.
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No, I don't think it's anything to do with how dry the pods are, all the rest of the pods are purple except these 3.
Purple podded peas - Desiree.
Front pod is Green/purple mottled and back two from same plant are totally green.
I am going to try and save the seeds, but there are only 2 in the mottled pod.
For the record, Onward produced an average of 8 in a pod, Golden Sweet also produced up to 8, the Purple Podded - Desiree never seemed to have big enough pods, peas all squashed together, average of 5 to a pod roughly.
You are right this is nothing like the fading to green that you get on mature purple pods. This looks like a mutation on that part of the plant. Mutations are fairly common in peas. I have never seen anything like the half purple half green pod. Yes I would save the seeds and grow them out next year. Fascinating.
I had a mutation to pink flowering one year. Just the one plant. And that mutation is fully stable. There are other mutations that only appear during the growing year and are not carried forward by the seeds.
Thanks for showing us.
Interesting stuff, I can't wait until next year, definitely need to grow these again and some different varieties. ;)
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Sunshine through the peas...................
(http://i45.tinypic.com/30lpg9h.jpg)
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Snack attack..............these taste lovely this season
(http://i46.tinypic.com/1z5m1wy.jpg)
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Mmmm look good.
I have another question for you pea people.
Noticed in a seed catalogue today while reading about varieties
think it said...has two pods at every nodule..then I saw another one in a different catalogue that said that one variety had three.
I sorta think I have this figured out but what is usual on a pea. I think that would make a big difference to yeild.
Sorry for all my dumb questions but you are making me understand peas better.
XX Jeannine
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What was the variety with 3 pods please.
My Hurst Greenshaft is covered with pairs and looks to be the best crop of peas I have ever had. So would be interested in growing peas with 3 pods.
Most peas have only one pod. I am sure someone will give more info..
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Hi, going back to look at the pea lists it seems I mis read a description
I read the following as having three pea pods which I mentioned above but I was not right,it actually reads
Clamart Trois Gousses...means triple pod. sorry I guess I read that quickly
However the triple ones I mentioned are
Triple Treat ( has been known to produce quads)
Aristgreens
Triplet
Snwebird
The double podded ones were
Fenn
Frizette
Frosty
Green Arrow
Harrison's Glory
Hightower
Kanalta
Magnum Bowman
Mesa
Midseason Freezer
Mizhik
Pomorska
Spanish
Blizzard
Golden Sweet
Giant Melting Sugar
Ho Lohn Dow
Sweet Snap
Chetopa
Desiree
Golderbse
Groninger Blauwschokker
Imposant Brown
Nadja
Ostgota Gulart
Przebowska Oliwkowa
Svallovs Belloart
Zeiners Gold
Now can someone tell me what heat units are in relation to peas please???
XX Jeannine
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The Telephone are into full swing now and I had a decent picking off them last night. Decently filled pods (6-7 peas on average) and the flavour is excellent. I had them with a few broad beans and french beans with some cheese and potato salad..... I love fresh peas and these are some of the best I've grown.... also because there's little vegetable growing going on in the gardens around me and then we're surrounded by industrial/trading estates I've hardly seen a pea moth.... just the one on one of the metoers...
chrisc
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Had absolutely terrible germination with my Telephone for some reason so none this year. Good job the Champion of England and Alderman were OK! Impressed with Champion of England - nice pods, 8-9 peas in most, good flavour. Will certainly grow again.
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Hi, going back to look at the pea lists it seems I mis read a description
I read the following as having three pea pods which I mentioned above but I was not right,it actually reads
Clamart Trois Gousses...means triple pod. sorry I guess I read that quickly
However the triple ones I mentioned are
Triple Treat ( has been known to produce quads)
Aristgreens
Triplet
Snwebird
The double podded ones were
....
Now can someone tell me what heat units are in relation to peas please???
XX Jeannine
Heat units - I am sorry this is not a concept used in the UK. Could you please put this question differently?
Peas don't like hot weather, but there are differences in how well they can deal with heat. I am impressed by Ne Plus Ultra (first time grown this year). Weggiser is the mangetout that resists heat best. And Alderman and Magnum Bonum are hanging in there well too. Lancashire Lad, on the other hand is wilting and the large mangetouts, Schweizer Riesen, Court Estate Gold and Eat All are coming to the end unless the weather changes radically to rainy and cool.
On the other hand, peas can stand a few degrees of frost, especially the round-seeded varieties. The sweeter, wrinkle-seeded varieties are less frost tolerant, but even they have some tolerance.
Most peas have double pods, this is the standard. If they can breed peas that reliably have 4 pods per node and with a good number of peas inside, that would indeed be a bit revolutionary for pea yield. The breeders are probably working on it. On the other hand , a double pod of, say, Lancashire Lad, yielding 20 peas could easily outperform a quad pod with much lower pea count. (have just checked with photos taken earlier and most Lancashire Lad were single pods, sadly). I hope the varieties with triple and quadruple pods mention the pea count that can be expected. Perhaps they are mangetout peas? Are these commercially available peas?
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Hi Galina, many of the seeds mentioned are from the SSE yearbook, The triples I found on the net when I was searching for peas as you know I have over the last couple of weeks. I will go back on line tonight when I have more time and find a source. The only one I remember of the top of my head was the Triple Treat which was from Mandy's Greenhouse in Manitoba but I wasn't sure about buying from her. :-\
The heat thingy was also quoted in among the descriptions in the SSE yearbook. As you know peas are something I know Zilch about and am trying to give myself a crash course. I noticed it several times but no explanation. I can e mail someone and find out though.
example..
Felicitas. 5-6'tall .1255 heat units,5dimpled seed per pod,light brown with some flecking,curved pods 19.05 grams per 100 seeds.Hungary
I have also noticed 1005 heat units,674,850,1554 and 1134. It seems to be scattered through all the types of peas?? Odd eh!!
I can see peas being far from the mundane basic little green things I thought they were ;D
I am getting too interested... worries me.. Oh another research project another collection :o You pea experts have got me too too interested.
XX Jeannine
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These may help, but its a bit techie for me :)
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2003/alm03may.htm
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/rhodcv/hort410/csheatuj.htm
http://www.skyeinstruments.com/Case%20Studies/Skye%20Case%20Study%20-%20Birds%20Eye%20Pea%20Harvest.pdf
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Jeannine and Jayb
Thank you for these great urls. I worked out what they mean. They have devised a system which is called heat units or growing day units. Provided a certain amount of units have been reached, peas (or other crops) can be harvested. Does not include soil fertility, watering or any other variables. It is just a way of refining the old US system of 'days to maturity' by incorporating actual temperature data.
There is an interesting table in Jayb's first url which states the minimum, optimum and maximum temperatures for different vegetables:
Critical Temperatures for Selected Crops
Crop Minimum Growth
Temperature (C/F)
Optimum Growth
Temperature Range (C/F)
Maximum Growth
Temperature (C/F)
Cool Season Grains 0-4 / 32-40 24-29 / 75-85 32-38 / 90-100
Corn 10 /50 29-32 / 85-90 43-46 / 110-115
Cucumbers 9-10 / 4850 24-27 / 75-80 35-46 / 95-115
Melons 15-18 / 59-65 30-37 / 86-98 43-49 / 110-120
Peas 3-6 / 38-42 10-16 / 50-60 21-24 / 70-75
Potatoes 6-7 / 43-45 10-16 / 50-60 27-32 / 80-90
Snap Beans 10 / 50 27-32 / 80-90 38-43 / 100-110
Tomatoes (growth) 10-13 / 50-55 16-27 / 60-80 29-35 / 85-95
Tomatoes (for fruit set) 13-14 5 / 5-58 15-20 / 59-68 22 / 72
This table does not format well, but for peas the minimum growing temperatur is 3-6C, the optimum growing temperature is 10-16C and the maximum temperature is 21-24 degrees C.
In other words, we should aim to grow peas as much as possible in the first two temperature spans, bcause afterwards all we can do is harvest and there will be no further meaningful plant development in the heat of summer. I went to the World Climate website and looked up Ladner BC, and the average February temperature is 3.7 C and the average March temperature is 6.0C
http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N49W123+1202+0012290G2
If you combine the information from the two websites, it would appear that late February and certainly March are suitable pea growing months near you Jeannine. The temperature data from Edgbaston near Birmingham are 3.4C in February and 5.4C in March respectively. This indicates that late Feb and definitely all of March are also the best times to start off peas here in England. Compare that to French beans, whose optimum growing temperature is between 27 and 32C!
Having said this, peas don't germinate well in cold soil. It is best to transplant them or at least sprout them indoors.
I have a garden friend whose knowledge I respect a lot and his advice is based on phenology. He sows his peas as soon as the forsythia starts flowering.
I hope this makes sense and short of taking min and max temperatures on a daily basis (and hoping that all other conditions are optimum) the temperature ranges that peas like to grow in are a good guide for sowing times. The heat unit numbers indicate which varieties are ready earlier and which mature later, also useful to know.
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Wow Galina, stunning work you get an A+ for that!!
I guess as North America is so big things like this would make a lot of sense, what a way to go shopping though with units in your head.
I have always fussed, snuggled them in to be warm and got precisely no place.
This year I prepared a bed, chucked in everything I had that was way of of date,not expecting anything to happen, then prepared to use the bed for something else, covered the seeds with soil and forgot about it, we then had 5 weeks of very cool temps for May and I was puzzled as to why the peas were doing well when other years I was pulling my hair out wondering what I was doing wrong.
So by sheer chance and neglect I am getting a crop. Well this is a good lesson in gardening.
Thank you so much for all your work, I hate maths but have really warmed to yours!!
XX Jeannine
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Thank you Galina ;D and Thanks for asking Jeannine, a fascinating topic which opens many thoughts and has already taken me off at a tangent. I tend to garden by feel, so it is always interesting to make more sense of why something works, or not.