Peas are beginning to bloom

These are "Burpeena Early" I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that we will get peas this year. So far they are looking great!

Ok, I have never grown peas so maybe you or someone else can help learn me about them! I thought all peas needed to be trellised? Is this a bush variety or something?

Very nice, btw.

This message was edited Apr 13, 2011 2:15 PM

Yes, John, these should grow to about 24" and hold up each other.

Looks good honeybee! Hope you get a couple this year...

I had the same question as John. Those look great honeybee, I hope you get some peas before the heat sets in. My mature vine of peas is fizzling out and the ones I planted late don't seem to like the temps. They don't look too good.

Cool season peas (not to be confused with beans that southerners call "peas" like cow peas, purple hulls or black eye peas) in this zone are usually good until sometime in June. They can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. Ours were planted in early March. I grow fava beans, in front of climbing peas (snap and snow) during the same cool season, which grow on large bushes.. I don't normally grow English peas as they are not worth the space for the small production IMO but I acquired free seed and made a little room for them this year.

MaypopLaurel - Hubby and I love peas - we are both English, so this is one vegetable that was a staple in both our homes as children.

There are a few rare recipes that we love entailing fresh English peas. They are like the hen's teeth in the dish. As for general pea eating, we eat little frozen food and even less canned but I can't see making garden space for a few meals of peas when quality frozen peas are cheap. I migt think otherwise if I had larger than a kitchen garden.

This message was edited Apr 13, 2011 8:49 PM

Very interesting. I do not know the difference between a snap pea vs. a sugar pea vs. a sweet pea vs. a cow pea (?? really?) but I do know what a black-eyed pea is, though. I always thought they were a bean, though. Ok...ummm....there's a connection between beans and peas, isn't there?

I made the mistake of googling "black-eyed peas", too. Lol. Should have known...

Snap peas are round and plump with large seeds. Snow peas are wide and flat with small peas if picked when young. Both are edible and very tasty raw but snow peas get a tough exterior if you let the peas inside get large. Snap peas are actually a type of snow pea but I think snow peas are much mor flavorful. Either way, the young shoots taste just like the peas and are excellent when thinned under 6"-8" for stir fries or soups. So you can plant the peas a few inches a part, thin to four or six inches and have an edible crop long before you harvest peas.

In the South many varieties of beans are referred to as peas. I could add butter peas to the list above which are similar to, but not the same as butter beans. They are smaller and more creamy. Southern "peas" grow in hot weather. Many are half runners, that is they grow several feet like a bush bean and then put out a few climbing vines that go up a few more feet. They never reach the height of a full blown climber but are very prolific and require little attention. They compete well with weeds. These beans are good to plant mid-summer. I run rows a few inches in front of cool weather peas in June. As the snow peas or sugar snaps ar declining they will take over and produce in late summer, continuing into late fall or first freeze. You can let the pods ripen/dry slightly on the vines and eat the peas fresh or pick them and dry them further for winter.

Fighting words, Maypop. Vigna, Pisum, and Phaselous are distinct entities. "Beans" are really an overworked generalitity. "Peas" also is used to describe many unrelated entities, just not as broadly used as "beans". Back to the Pisum (English pea). I find the yield per unit of row to be comparable to that of Vigna (southern peas). There are tall versions that need to be trellised, but most varieties are dwarfs that grow well with no help. Snap peas are edible podded peas so yields are greater when the pods are counted. This is my pea patch several weeks ago. The Willet Wonders on the right are ready for harvest this weekend) I normally get about six gallons of shelled peas from this size patch.

John, the descriptions of cool season peas ( Pisum sativum) both the shell version(English pea) and the edible pod version (snap pea) are becoming confusing. The snow pea/oriental pea is a subspecies Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon. Also an edible podded pea but distinctive in growth and taste. Sweet pea is a common flower Lathyrus odoratus or Lathyrus latifolius. It is toxic. "Sweet pea " should never be used when referring to edible peas.
Southernpeas/cowpeas Vigna unguiculata comes in all shapes and sizes, have their own unique flavor, but are consistently a hot weather vegetable. The Yardlong/asparagus bean (Vigna sesquipedalis) is a sub species.

Umm, I missed the fighting words, Dill and would never want to pick one with you as you are the pea pro (along with almost every other veggie). Lets make peas not war. :) If you are saying English peas are as productive as Southern peas, or snow/snaps well I believe you, but not for me. In any case, I prefer the taste of snow peas most and find the shoots versatile. I would not bother with snap peas either had I not been gifted a pile of seed. The taste is more bland and they don't crisp when stir fried like snow peas. As an overview though I have to say that the warm weather peas have a much longer go than cool peas (which only give me about six weeks of crop) and for me are more prolific.

As for sweet peas such as Lathyrus odorata, they are indeed not edible but are attractive old fashioned climbers. I miss the tall old fashioned sweet peas now fallen by the wayside in favor of the short ones. The old seed catalogs used to always carry them. They are not so available any more.

Last year no peas made it into the house... granddaughter and I stuffed ourselves silly while playing in the garden - and the chickies got the shells, so everyone was happy. My goal is to triple pea production this year - in hopes that some will make it into the house. We grow snap peas, snow peas and English peas. The chickens love the vines and happily turn them into compost when it starts getting hot. If you go out into the garden early in the morning before the air stirs, you can smell the sweetness of the pea flowers. Here in zone 6, the peas are about an inch out the ground. I planted them under row covers this year, and so didn't have to share the seeds or sprouts with the local bird population.

I never thought to interplant the peas with crowder/black-eye/purple-eye/cow/bean-peas before. Sounds like a great way to keep the garden growing. I wonder if the Southern peas will be well hidden enough in the English pea vines that the birds will overlook them? Or, maybe by then there will be enough things growing that they won't have to raid my garden as much. (One can dream, yes?)

Kmom, I don't really interplant the summer peas and beans but rather plant a few inches to the front of the cool peas. Then they follow the cool weather vines on up the fence. By the time the second peas or beans hit their stride the cool peas are long gone but providing good trellising. Purple hulls love growing on the old snow pea vines and offer up such pretty flowers as a bonus.

kmom246 - I started my peas under a row cover too, this year. I got tired of the birds eating the leaves as soon as they appeared above ground.

JohnCrichton75 - the connection you might be seeking between peas and beans is that they are both "legumes". So is Kudzu!

Actually a lot of things are called beans that are not legumes, coffee beans for example.

Thanks again, everyone. This thread has helped clarify many things for me regarding peas. One thing I need to remember is too to consider bush varieties more often. Like I said earlier, I "read" peas and I automatically thought trellis.

My sugar snap peas started blooming early last week. I got them into the ground somewhat late, but they seem to be doing okay. It took them a while to get started, but they are finally moving on. The trellis are small pieces of cattle panel. I clip one row of the cross-bar off and have 6-inch legs for pushing into the ground. They have managed to stay up through several 40-mph winds. I have two almost 20-foot rows. That's enough for me to snack on and for an occasional stir-fry.

You can't seem them very well, but there are a fair number of baby pea-pods hiding in the leaves.

I recall Dill saying he is fond of a number of bush varieties of peas/beans. I avoid them unless there's no choice 'cause there's more than enough bending for me in the garden as it is. lol Dill must be more spry than I.

I can't stand very long Maypop. On the other hand I am very accustomed to being on my knees. In my second child hood I crawl better than I walk.

Farmerdill,

Have you considered a garden scooter? A friend recently bought one of these and really likes it. He has Myasthenia gravis and has trouble walking or standing for long. I have muscle weakness due to my renal failure and dialysis and I'm really thinking that I need something like this because I can only bend for a very few minutes at a time.

It's available from Gardner's Supply, http://www.gardeners.com/Deluxe-Tractor-Scoot-2010/39-008RS,default,pd.html
(source of photo, below)

David

Very witty Dill. I hear you about our second childhoods. My SO says he didn't realize what it would be like to be an old hippie until he started limping a few months ago.

Dreaves, the garden scooter looks great. I think I have too much garden to roll around in a scooter though. Dill's garden is a lot larger than mine. My SO got me a garden/camp stool a number of years ago. It kills my back to bend over to the ground. Like Dill, I am always crawling around in the dirt.

John, I love trellising and growing vertically with every opportunity. We have a lot of acres in woods here at Maypop so there is always a good supply of fallen or trimmed limbs to create biodegradable trellises. We use them all over our garden in the form of early American stockade-style stick fences (keeps dogs and rabbits out). We assemble taller ones for tepees and tuteurs. I often grow late beans for seed saving over cabbages or collards by tepeeing limbs. By the time the beans have made it up the poles in Fall the old greens and cabbages are done. New ones are ready to be started elsewhere. I've also started tepeed seed around overwintered vegetables (again mustards, cabbages, collards, kale, arugula and chard).

David
About when did you plant your sugar snap peas? I only planted my seeds earlier this week. Will I be able to harvest before the heat gets to them?

HRP,

I planted my peas a couple of months ago. You may get lucky though, and still get some peas. I don't think the Sugar Snap peas are as sensitive to heat as English peas. Seems like I remember picking sugar snaps well into June in the past couple of years. Of course, you have to be sure they are getting water. We haven't had any rain here, so I've been watering everything by hand.

David

Here are my sugar snap peas. You can see that they are blooming as well as producing peas. The temperatures have started moderating a little bit (high 80's rather than high 90's) so I'm hopeful that the peas will last for a little while.

English peas coming to the end of the line. The first picking of Willett Wonders are in the freezer. Premium needs picking now if I can find the time.

The peas are beginning to set pods. I think I'll actually get peas this year! YAY!

I'm picking off a slug here and there, but the pea vines are now strong enough to tolerate a few holes.

My Sugar Anne snap peas were the first to produce.... started about three weeks ago

Golden Sweet Edible Podded.... what pretty blossoms. Peas are tender and sweet... started producing about two weeks ago

Blue Pod Capuchijners Soup
cascadia pod
Dwarf Grey
Mammoth Melting Sugar
Oregon Giant
shelling, green arrow
Super Sugar Snap
..... are all just starting to put on

My peas were very slow this year. I planted Merveille de Kelvedon on March 5th and one of the double rows came up beautifully, although slowly, and the other, from a packet of Kelvedon Wonder that I got through Sand Hill Preservation, I think, never showed at all. I had to replant with what was left of my own saved seeds. I don't see any signs of flowers yet.

I only have one Alaska that is blooming, everything else is just laying there. We have had a pretty miserable April though, it does look like we've turned the corner so maybe things will start looking up. Everything else is cliking along great.

Got my first (small) serving of snow peas, and to my surprise, it was the Goldens that produced! I've never had any luck with them before, so It's a nice treat. They are the prettiest things, especially at the point where the bright yellow pea shows in the dark purple bloom.
But, all my peas seem short this year. I try to plant the tallest varieties, because, like Maypop, I don't care for bending more than I have to *G*. The Goldens are about 2.5 feet, and the others the same or shorter. Maybe it's just early.
I have to start a journal, so I'll remember fromone year to the next. Used to be able to do it without help, but, well...

Sigh. I tell myself that my brain is just so full of knowledge that I can't fit anything new in.

Right?

I love the pea photos, especially the Golden's. Mine have plain-old white blooms. Killed a squash bug on one of them yesterday and a very hairy caterpillar this morning!

Oh, no, squash bugs! How awful!