snow pea problems and questions

vegie chicken

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my snow peas got hit by frost heavily, re-germinated then hit by another frost and this cycle continued for the whole of winter. it is starting to warm up so i'm hoping for it to be frost free for another year. one plant is healthy but the others look like they have seen the good days and only the new growth looks kind of good.
should i let it grow before it gets to hot
or
should i leave it so the self induced nitrogen can be put back into the ground.

do i have to wait til the plants have died to get most of the nitrogen or can i chop the plan up and leave the roots in the ground to do their work.
 

digitS'

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In the southern hemisphere, are you?

My understanding is that legumes must die before the plant, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots, can provide nitrogen for anything growing in the soil nearby. I could be wrong about this but living organisms are "tying up" nitrogen in the form of protein.

As far as whether the plants you have can produce a crop -- it would be hard to say without seeing them. And, it might still be hard to say. Plants can show some remarkable recovery from frost damage.

Steve
 

vfem

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digitS' said:
In the southern hemisphere, are you?

My understanding is that legumes must die before the plant, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots, can provide nitrogen for anything growing in the soil nearby. I could be wrong about this but living organisms are "tying up" nitrogen in the form of protein.

As far as whether the plants you have can produce a crop -- it would be hard to say without seeing them. And, it might still be hard to say. Plants can show some remarkable recovery from frost damage.

Steve
I must agree, especially since peas are a cool weather crop. They are more likely to survive and come back from a frost. New growth is a good sign. It couldn't hurt to watch.
 

vegie chicken

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it is a bit to late now. cut of plant at ground level and put it through the mower and it is now a fine pile of brown shedded material in the compost. by the time it starts to recover it will most likely be hot with heat waves so no point. thanks for the info still. pulled up roots of the snow peas and a clover legume and both had these little white dodts on the roots as we find on all of our legumes like pasture clover and paddock peas. put in tomatoes were the snow peas were
 

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