Talk about good garden munching! Not many make it into the house. I have an abudant crop.
Give Peas a Chance
Great going, Mary! Mine haven't started to flower yet. I have them covered under hoop-loops to protect them from birds. IF I get any peas this year it will be my first for TWO YEARS!
Thanks Honey....mine will be done soon, the heat has arrived! Good luck with yours.
Great looking crop Mary. My first planting is almost done but my second planting is just getting started. I had a seven year old over the other day and she picked herself a mess o peas. She was going to take them to school for her lunch the next day but she had very few left by the time she went home.
I can understand that! Will the plant continue to produce in the heat?
I missed the planting window for peas this spring. I'll have to try in the fall.
My chickens and I have an agreement on peas - I get to eat the peas and they get the pods. Peas are barely germinating here. Hens are not happy as they are mostly banished from the garden this time of year. They don't understand that if they eat all the seeds while they are in the ground, there will be no yummy things for them to eat later in the year!
Those chickens, they just have no forward thinking.
I don't usually eat the pods either, I just crack the jacket and eat all the peas inside.
My dog likes the pods. She also likes the peas, but I like them more! LOL
My dogs like ALL the garden greens, especially broccoli leaves but too much upsets their stomachs. Ugh!
Here in Boston we are just sowing our peas. I planted sugar ann snaps and golden sweet snow peas yesterday. Also transplanted a few of the brassicas. Hoping it doesn't get too cold for them. I have them under a garden blanket.
I heard you folks got more snow yesterday. Jeez. The winter that never ends huh? Good luck on the peas, looks like you've got a good start.
I SOOOOOOOOOOO want to grow peas, but I can't get the timing right!!!
How long from sowing to snacking? And, what temps do they like best? I have Super Sugar Sweets? and Wando peas to sow. Anything else you could share would be appreciated.
TIA
Linda
Linda,
This is pirated from another Houston gardener:
"In Houston, there are no freezes, just frosts, and snow/sugar peas laugh at 28 degrees. We plant sugar snaps/snow peas in December and January."
Days to Maturity: Ranges from 55 to 70 days. The package should tell you.
This message was edited Apr 6, 2011 3:40 PM
Linda,
This is for Houston:
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/2006PlantingPlan.pdf
I have made a similar chart for the Lake Texoma area and it sure has been useful.
ps. I am envious of your tomato seedling success. I lost a lot to damping off.
vortreker, try bottom watering with a weak solution of cammomile tea and a few drops of peroxide. Keep a light fan going.
Thanks Mary
Vortreker!
Thanks for de peas advice and the compliment!
Gymgirl,
Be sure and look at that chart link in the second post. It is fantastic.
Wow, Boston - you are the brave one getting your brassica's out!
I think I will follow your lead, though, and get those peas planted this weekend. I usually wait until I see the first volunteer coming up, but heck - after seeing Molly's babies, I am SOOOOOO ready. Ooh, I feel a munch-out coming on!!!
Vortreker,
That chart is really great! Thanks for sharing. I'm sending you a dmail, too.
Vortreker,
That is a great chart. I'm trying to produce something like from seed pkt info and random sources ... basing mine on "weeks before average last frost".
Do you happen to know what that date is for Houston, or what was assumed for that chart?
I see dates like feb 15 - march 1 for the '50% chance of going below 32".
Where I live, that date is around April 6.
Corey
Like "hardiness zone", I don't think that "average last frost date" tells the whole story. It matters how fast spring warms up, and whether it hovers around 30-34 for months.
Rick,
Houston's average first and last frost dates are 3/17 and 11/14.
I use the "10% safe date"
Here is a really neat site for Everett. You have to sign in but it's free.
You will really like this and it will save you a lot of time in putting a chart together.
http://www.letsgrowveggies.com/washington/98208/frost_dates/
Gosh--are you lucky to be in zone 7b that close to Canada
That looks like a great site, but IT at work must be blocking something. The page that requests email and zip code seems to have no spot where text can be enetered. I;m going to try from my home PC.
The climate here is great UNLESS you want to grow tomatoes or peppers. The frost-free season is long, but it sledom gets HOT, especially at night.
The prevailing wind blows Pacific Ocean warmth (and rain) upon us for three seasons, then blows Pacific coolth upon us all summer. We have coolish summers and VERY mild winters. A half-inch of snow produces panic, and people leave work early "so they don't get stranded". As a young kid in MA, "heavy snow" was when the drifts were over my head.
We tell people that "it rains every day all year here" so we don't get even more immigration from California and elsewhere. Old timers complain about "Californication".
Actually, we only get rain and drizzle almost every day for three seasons: summer is cool but clear and sunny.
My scrutiny of hardness zone maps usually claims Zone 8a or even 8b for my micro-neighborhood. I live about 1.5 miles from the coast, and a local gardening book talks about how fast zones change in my otwn - there are "cold gardens" and "warm gardens" separated by block, not miles.
Unfortunately, it can feel as if "spring is here" for weeks at a time around late January or february, but April and May may "gotcha". I suspect that, with a cold frame or hoop tunnel, I could grow SOMETHING year-round.
Of course normal variation goes down to zero occasionally, and we had hail on our "50% frost date" this year.
The first year I gardened here, there were three snowstorms AFTER the frost date I expected (I had looked it up wrong), and the snow didn;t melt right away, either. Native Washingtonians were in shock.
The very first year I lived here, it rained measurably (not just misty drizzle) EVERY day in a row for something like 100 days. No one was at all surprised.
But every spring, when we start to get brief "sun breaks", people will talk about seeing the sun for DAYS. Now I refer to it as "that bright yellow round thing up in the sky ... whaddaya call it?"
Corey
LOL_LOL on the "Californication.
Try this link:
http://www.letsgrowveggies.com/washington/98208/spring_vegetable_planting_guide/
Thanks, but I get similar problems from my home PC. No entry form. The page loads "done, but with errors on page". Someitmwes there are extra blocks of text at the bottom, but usually they're missing.
The closest I've gotten so far is a spinning hourglass, but it just keeps spinning.
I'll try again on other days, or late at night. It looks like a good site!
I should probably check out local Master Gardener sites, and extension or "edu" sites.
Corey
Our weather is so fickle it is difficult to predict a good time to plant peas; however I have some volunteers come up each spring in the area where I had previously planted the peas. I let that be my guide for direct seeding. In another forum chucki mentions transplanting peas and beans which I have never tried or even heard of before. Chuck says he first soaks the seed overnight, then four weeks after planting they are ready to transplant. Has anyone here transplanted peas before?
I also had trouble with the link from my ipad, which often glitches on things like that. I took out the details on the link and went to letsgrowveggies.com and was able to register and put in my zip. Great resource! Thanks!
Pam
Rick
Try Pam's solution
mraider3 - I transplanted peas for the first time this spring. They are still alive, but have yet to bloom.
I did approach it from the home address, and from links found by Google. Both from home and work, several times. I guessed that their server might be very busy, but I guess other people can get in.
?
Corey
Sometimes you can Google "planting dates X county" (if in the US) and you'll find the optimal planting dates for your area. Or, if you've got a county extension agency program you can google that for the info.
We gave Peas a Chance Today. I soaked my last years saved seeds and my sweet DH planted them today. He only likes English peas. Isn't that weird? Just something about munching pod and all that grates, I guess. Anyway, I learned that peas are easy to save, as long as you save an Heirloom. Is that right Garden experts? Nothing easier to save than a pea. Now we wait. The waiting is the hardest part for me.
beebonnet - I'm not a seed saving expert, but I don't think seeds need to Heirloom. They do have to be open-pollinated to come true to the parent. At least that's what I believe to be the case.
That's correct---as long as they're open pollinated (not a hybrid) they will come "true".
You can save hybrid seed but you probably will get a different plant than the original.
There are such things as stable hybrids but they may take decades to develop.
You can grow a clone of a hybrid plant by growing from a cutting, air layering, root division, etc.
Oh, thanks guys. I guess I forgot about OP varieties and I knew that, too. I have not heard of stable hybrids before though. Do you think Early Girl is a stable hybrid? I would love to save seed from that tomato.
beebonnet - I like Early Girl, too. Last year I picked the first one on July 4th, and am aiming for the same date this year.
Sorry, I don't know the answer as to whether Early Girl is a stable hybrid.
There is an open pollinated (stable) variety of Early Girl available but the seeds are hard to find. Perhaps, with perseverance, you could find it or maybe someone in DG knows where you could get seeds.
If you have a greenhouse or warm frame you could clone it from cuttings.
I was discussing crops for my four raised beds and rotation when someone suggested peas as a fall cover crop. I could plant the seeds in late August and probably even harvest the crop while adding nitrogen back into the raise bed growing media. Sounded like a pretty good idea to me. It would however require a small bush type variety so the bed could be covered at night in the same manner as I do with early spring plantings. I am about to order a small bush French green bean from Ed Hume Seeds in Washington which is another small bush variety which could do the same. I have never heard of sprawling peas or beans but that might be an option as well.