What to use for pea support?

[wiswash]

Last year I used nylon string for the pea trellis. This year I use jute string. Both of these sag too much and are mostly useless imo. Does anyone have any good ideas for supporting peas. I suppose I could support the string aver 4-6 feet with little stakes but other ideas I will consider too. Thanks

 

[Carol Dee]

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We use old bits of rat wire, chicken wire, cattle panels, etc.... Held up with t posts. The 1st year my DH did this I thought for sure the wire would get hot and damage the green bean and pea vines. It works great. Almost no bending over to pick. Just walk between rows and snip them into bucket. Easy Peasy. This photo was taken shortly after peas and beans emerged. They are now a bit over knee high and blooming. Some of the 1st peas have pods.
Remember to leave room between rows to walk as these can grow up head height. ( Wide enough to run a tiller without damaging vines is a plus.) Oddly enough this configuration keeps the deer out without fencing, too!

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

We grow ours on wire fencing held up by t-posts too - works great and can be moved around from year to year as needed. If you scroll down a bit there are pictures of peas growing on our fencing set-up here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2011/06/15/growing-sugar-snap-peas/

Those pictures are a couple of weeks ago, some of the sugar snaps are now taller than the fencing but everything is still well supported.

 

[cityfarmer]

We use the same fencing. I used rebar to stake them in this year. The sooner you put the fencing in when you plant the better. One year I waited and damaged plants while trying to get the fencing in.

 

[wiswash]

Thanks all for your ideas. Fencing it is! Next year. I just put some bamboo supports on my strings for the remainder of the year.

 

[wiswash]

Another question. It is hard to tell this from your pictures. This year Ive planted my peas in double rows 6 inches apart. Should I plant the double rows and put one fence down the middle OR plant single rows (how far apart?) and use one fence for each row? Carol Dee, it looks like you use one fence for each row and each row is 24 inches apart. Thanks

 

[4grandbabies]

Another question. It is hard to tell this from your pictures. This year Ive planted my peas in double rows 6 inches apart. Should I plant the double rows and put one fence down the middle OR plant single rows (how far apart?) and use one fence for each row? Carol Dee, it looks like you use one fence for each row and each row is 24 inches apart. Thanks

My opinion is to give your self plenty of picking room. I put chicken wire between double rows, and then got the next set of rows too close, a nightmare to pick!!! But they were oh so good........

 

[Carol Dee]

Another question. It is hard to tell this from your pictures. This year Ive planted my peas in double rows 6 inches apart. Should I plant the double rows and put one fence down the middle OR plant single rows (how far apart?) and use one fence for each row? Carol Dee, it looks like you use one fence for each row and each row is 24 inches apart. Thanks

The peas are planted in double rows with fench down the middle. You might want to plant rows farther than 24 inches apart. When they are full it becomes hard to move down the rows with out getting tangled up and possibly damaging plants. DH planted them much closer that I like this year. oh-well there is always next year.