Are These Beans/Southern Peas Bush, Semi-Vining or Vining?

It seems every southern pea and bean described as "bush" that I have grown puts out tendrils. I'm trying Big Boys, Dixie Speckled butterpeas and Dwarf Horticultural (aka October or Cranberry) this year and want to know what to expect in advance. I can provide fence if they want to go up but can't afford space between rows if they start spreading out. I've grown brown crowders for years and they definitely go up as do zipper peas. Both are considered bush.

While on the topic of the vegetables above, I was unable to get white lady cream peas and many other varieties normally stocked at local seed and feeds due to what was described as crop failures. This led me to try the new varieties listed. Fortunately I saved zipper peas which are also locally unavailable. I've read that due to complaints about poor seed quality and mixed seed batches several large seed companies, such as Southern Seed and Mayo, are withholding varieties. I've seen online sites that are making a point of marketing the purity of their seed and sources. What is the truth here? Was there actually "crop failure" on so many varieties of beans and peas or is unavailability based on consumer complaints in re: quality in recent years? Perhaps another reason?

These are all bush, altho Big Boy is a big bush. Dixie Butterpea is relatively small bush. Dwarf Horticultural grows like a standard bush snap bean. Crop failure seems to be a recurring event in the southern pea world. I frequently get varieties from Willhite and they have lots of supply problems. The more rare varieties probably don't have many growers making them more susceptible.

The first time I grew purple hull peas, I was surprised at their tendency to grow tendrils about a foot or so. I was told by some knowledgeable friends that this was normal and that I should get some "Top Set" purple hull peas. Well, I ordered some of those the following year, and the same thing happened! This year, a friend sent me some of his own seeds that he says will not have the tendrils. We'll see. If they grow like I want them to, I'll save my own seeds. This video shows the type of pea I want to grow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERa644hdzTU

There was a big discussion on thebayougardener forum about the availability of zipper cream peas: http://thebayougardener.com/smf/index.php?topic=23639.0

Thanks to you both for the response. It gives pause for thought. I won't take seed availabilty lightly in the future.

Dill, how big do Big Boys get? I double rowed them about eight inches apart. Am I needing to tear out a row? The pack had no planting directions. Are those Big Boys on the left and Dixie Speckled on the right? I've grown Dixie White. It looks like the same habit. Do you have a preference between the two?

I have grown and do like purple hulls, Jomoncon. Further research led me to several university sources that mentioned soils higher in nitrogen promote tendril production in bush peas and beans regardless of variety.

Thanks for the info on high nitrogen. I garden in raised beds and move things around a lot. I tend to plant the field peas after the corn, so there must be a lot of extra nitrogen left in the soil. This year, the field peas are planted where strawberries grew last year followed by green beans , so maybe I'll have more luck.

I wonder if there's anyway to remove nitrogen? Maybe I'll keep a bed or two only for low-nitrogen loving plants, but outside of peas & beans I can't thing of anything else.
Jo-Ann

Big Boys have a similar growth habit to Zipper. maybe a shade larger. Dixie White and Dixie Speckled Butterpeas are pretty much identical until you start shelling them. Like all colored versus white limas, the speckled has a stronger flavor.

Best way to remove excess nitrogen is to follow with a nitrogen loving crop- like onions, etc

We plant a succession of greens in fall, snow and snap peas in spring and southern peas in June. We fertilize before and during greens but not for spring or summer peas. There are still tendrils. Perhaps those spring peas are too nitrogen fixing. :)

you- all are confusing me. No tendrils on Vignas, not even the vining ones like yard long beans. Even bush plants can have short runners. I plant cowpeas 3 inches apart in 42 inch rows and the larger ones will completely cover the space.

My mistake. I thought I saw the vining habit of bush beans referred to as tendriling. What I have going on is all my southern peas bush to the proper height and then vine several more feet with lots of pods on those vines. Thus the plants require some kind of support.

This is what my purple hull peas look like this year. I don't know if it's vining or tendriling, it's just that some of them are up to 4' long. The frame that you see is the framework for my winter hoop house.

Those look great. They are really vining because tendrils are those curling growths that come off the stem like on winter squash. I think I would have less of a problem if I planted in wide blocks instead of double rows so the vines that run a bit could latch on to each other. The double rows against the fence lines save space. So I went back and added one more row on each side of the fence to see if that would improve things.

One of my funnier experiences as a novice southern pea grower happened years ago when I followed advice to use wire fence, placed horizontally on blocks, to better elevate the plants off the ground. My brain must have been on vacation because I used 2x4 gauge and when the peas came in I realized no hand could fit through the wire to pick the beans. At least I had a ton of reseeded beans in that spot the following year.