The ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ (mange-tout variety) peas started flowering at the beginning of May and have recently started cropping. They’ve reached about a metre which is as high as they’ll get. Somewhere in there we also have Feltham First peas, but i didn’t label them so have no idea which plants are which. I suppose we’ll see once they start cropping too.
The problem i have is that everytime i walk past the peas, i take one or two off to eat, as they are so amazingly sweet. This means that we haven’t had enough to make a meal yet, but it shouldn’t be long.
I was told recently that peas stop cropping when it gets too warm, so i’m thinking that i need to plant some more in the guttering, in the cold frame, to go into the beds around mid July time. Although i think i’d be quite reluctant to take out still cropping plants, it would make sense to extend the season. If i replace half and leave half, then i would be able to see which method works better…i feel an experiment coming on…
May 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Hooray for experiments.
And hooray for cropping peas! I’m still anxiously watching mine for flowers. (I’m growing Golden Sweets, and the flowers are supposed to be unusually pretty, too.)
May 30th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
This fills me with despair–my peas haven’t sprouted yet! Oy–mostly I love living in Montana, but there are times…
–kate
May 31st, 2008 at 10:40 am
The problem with peas is they cannot tolerate heat. This is why they stop cropping mid-summer. You can usually do a second planting around August/September and get a fall crop, but you are unlikely to be able to get plants established in a cold frame (or even outdoors) this time of year.
Pea plants complete their life cycle and die when they successfully go to seed. The best way to extend the period of harvest is to pick the peas off the plant as frequently as possible. Frequent picking put the plants into a kind of survival mode, where they start trying to grow as many pea pods as they can.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:56 am
Jenny - they’ll appear secretly like mine did - i spotted 1 then saw about ten!
Manic - They will! What sort of temperature do you have over there at the moment? I saw an American blog recently that had runner beans and courgettes already…is it different in different zones? All very confusing.
Patrick - thanks, i’m more about experimenting and learning than doing things as they should be done! If i’m told i can’t do it, i try! Maybe an extra sowing late August is a plan then!