Snap Peas

[digitS']

I live about 80 miles north of the "Pea & Lentil Capital of the US." That probably makes it too easy to grow peas here and I certainly don't know about growing them somewhere else.

Snap peas are the most important garden vegetable introduction (Idaho plant breeder, Dr. Calvin Lamborn ) in my lifetime, IMO. The only thing that slows me down with them is the need to build trellises for the tall varieties and that I've never found the dwarf types to be very productive. All garden peas will also develop powder mildew late and have had downy mildew early, but that isn't much of a problem. I usually set up at least 3, 35' trellises over 4' wide beds.

So Lucky, I can grow a crop of Sugar Pod peas, haven't tried the others, by sowing seed the last week of July. The vines will not grow very tall and so hardly need a trellis. They will bloom & produce pods at the very end of the season. Yes, they can survive the 1st frosts but cold weather really slows down their continuing development.

Hoodat, I've grown Alaska peas several times for both shell peas and dry peas. I've had problems with weevils in the dry peas but not every time. The only thing I can say is that the smooth-seeded peas handle cold soil much better than the real sugary, wrinkled peas. I don't know what difference that might make if the soil is never cold enough to interfere with germination. And, I don't know if the vines do much better early on just because the seed can germinate early. Maybe yes, and maybe it would be best to grow them right thru a San Diego winter. However . . . that looks like what you have done with the Snap peas. Why don't you think about saving some of that seed to see how it would be in soup? I know that it is a shame to lose those fleshy pods but I suspect the flavor of the seed may be same as a soup pea.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

I've never tried to save the seeds for replanting but since it's a hybrid it would more than likely just break back down into the original parent varieties.

 

[Carol Dee]

Rub it in.... *sigh* It is -4 this a.m. No peas for me for several month.

 

[897tgigvib]

Hoodat, I don't think any of the Peas are F1 hybrids. Peas can be hybridized, but it's a difficult and time consuming thing to do. It would be very labor intensive to have a hybrid Pea variety on the market, and they'd probably be about as expensive per seed as some of those hybrid Cucumbers and Cantaloupes that are about a dollar a seed. Add to that, a person really needs at bare minimum 50 Pea seeds to have even a small crop. Maybe the Princess of Monaco could afford a packet of hybrid Pea seeds. One dollar per seed for Cucumbers or Cantaloupes is doable because 5 plants can make a satisfying crop.

I really did like growing the Alaska Peas. Quickest to flower, taste absolutely delicious as garden munchies, and they ripen as beautiful green round soup Peas. Hoodat, I bet that if you planted your Peas about now down there near San Diego in a part of your garden that is exposed to the rising sun and shaded in the afternoon, and given water twice a day they'd do real well. Alaska is not only tolerant of cold, it is also tolerant of heat.

There are 14 varieties of Peas that are grown in the Sierra Madre listed in http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/peas plus 5 standard varieties they have added. I have not yet tried any of these, but I sure am wanting to. (I really need to get cracking at getting another garden going on someone elses property, preferably huge). Some of these strongly adapted Peas just may be best for you. They are a good one to get seeds from.

Most folks don't know that Peas come in several species and there are tons of varieties in each species. That's similar to Squashes and Peppers that come in several species each also. That seed vault that Nordgen has in a cave on an island in the Arctic sea has a huge listing of Pea varieties.
http://www.nordgen.org/sgsv/index.php?app=data_unit&unit=sgsv_by_genus&unit_id=1443659 They recently made their website more complicated, designed for scientists and government agencies. But searching around the Svalborg and Nordgen sites is possible, but getting seeds from them probably would require a visit to a University to see if an Agriculture professor could obtain some.

 

[joz]

I've got sugar snap peas peeking up out of the bed where I planted them on New Year's Day. The shell peas I planted ("Tall Telephone") are refusing to sprout. I think I'll pop more sugar snaps in the empty spots, and then go ask the Hollygrove Market and Farm which ones they planted that I was snacking on last summer.

 

[MontyJ]

Lucky you Hoodat! I love fresh peas, but the wife threatened me with bodily hurt if she ever had to shell peas again. I don't get it. She'll snap beans all day long :/ I think maybe I'll try snap peas and see how that goes

 

[seedcorn]

Lucky you Hoodat! I love fresh peas, but the wife threatened me with bodily hurt if she ever had to shell peas again. I don't get it. She'll snap beans all day long :/ I think maybe I'll try snap peas and see how that goes

While I like peas, I agree w/your wife, not worth the effort. I grow snap peas as we get the fiber, sweetness and taste of peas without the work.

 

[897tgigvib]

http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/peas/products/q022

this is likely the one that'd grow best for you Hoodat.

 

[897tgigvib]

Lol, Monty, might just have to set yourself down nice n comfortable in your favorite chair with a couple pans and shell those Peas yourself!

My idea in the garden with Peas is plant them out there extra early, like a month before last frost in a bed with white plastic on it, some kind of cover if needed, reseed some if needed, and get those puppies producing and done as soon as possible, and then plant something else. The quicker the Pea, the better!

 

[digitS']

. . . then plant something else. The quicker the Pea, the better!

Something that has often worked just fine for me is:

Snap beans after the peas! My garden has so many beans late in the season that I sow very, very little bean seed early.

Steve