How would I plant purple hull peas in an EB?

I am dying to try them as they are now $45.00 a bushel shelled where I live, and purple hulls are just my favorite. I know, most Northerners think they should all be fed to cows, LOL! But gosh I love em with fresh tomotoes off of the vine.....

Have any of you tried peas? And how would you plant them, straight in the earth box? How would the sun get in good to the peas or corn kernels if you planted them vs. plants?

darkmoondreamer: Good question. I love purple hull peas myself, I used to buy the okra and purple hull peas by the bushel and then put them up in the freezer. I was contemplating planting some peas and beans myself this Spring and summer but I bought the hanging grow bags for them to free up my EBs for other things.
joy112854

Darkmoon --- You can grow sixteen plants per EB. Eight on each side w/fertilizer in the middle. Refer to www.earthbox.com for verification. You will also need a trellis or their staking system with extra length supports to grow them. This is the way I grew my pole beans. They will do real well and you can grow them to your hearts content for as many seasons as you desire. Try Bocoabobs coco coir for best results if you can. It has a natural PH of 6.or 6.5 as I have tested which is perfect.

PS --- FORGOT TO ADD THAT YOU DIRECT SEED BY CUTTING X's IN THE COVER AND PLANT TWO OR THREE SEEDS PER X AND THEN PULL OUT THE WEAKEST AND LEAVE ONE.

This message was edited Jan 4, 2009 12:46 PM

Thanks TPlant! I'm so grateful for the information, bless you! Like I said, nothing better than a steaming bowl of fresh peas with some homegrown tomatoes and cornbread! I think you have to buy pea seeds from the feed stores around here, I know I will get funny looks when I ask for 30 seeds instead of a lb, LOL!

I grew a great crop of red rippers in mine this year. I put eight down each side and just let them grow up some of that netting I hung on the fence. I also, just for the heck of it. put a row in the grownd right along the EB on the drain hole side. That row did well also with all the watering.
Altho the smaller peas...such as white acre, are my favorite, I love zippers and purple hills too, and they have larger peas and more bang for yur buck, so Im going to add those as well.

I live and breath for fresh peas in the spring and summer...along with green peanuts. Even to pay for the shelled ones, I dont think they are nearly as good, if they get hot they start going badf and get 'that' tast. I also think they pick up the taste of the plastic. I wish they just had a pea shelling machine at the market and you could buy your peas and then put them thru right there.

what kind of netting gardenglory? My EB's won't be near a fence......Thanks for the pea info too!

You can buy the setup as shown above by buying the extra extension bars and an extra net or make your own teepee out of wood sticks.

Speaking of peas, I just got back in from wanting to prune my Don Juan. No such luck, I have spent the last hour pulling the dead red ripper vines out of the rose bush. Altho Don was a very tall playground for the peas...they do smother it. ALSO...I missed at least a big pot of peas at the top I never saw, and could have never gotten to.

Im not going to be near that fence this year...I think Im going to try the tee pee if I can find bamboo long enough for what i need.

Have any of you ever used these supports before? I saw a lady's EB video blog on YouTube where they had been recommended to her and that's all she used in her many EBs for tomatoes, beans, melons, etc.

They are called Ultomato Tomato Cage

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultomato-Tomato-Cage_W0QQitemZ350125857741QQcmdZViewItem



This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 11:15 AM