Sweet Peas in Georgia

I was speaking with a co-worker the other day about the upcoming gardening season and he mentioned to me that he starts his peas in January. Said he had a productive and healthy crop last year.

Was he just lucky? Seems to me that frost would have wiped him out.

Any GA residents have any input. We are in Zone 7A

BB

BronxBoy,
Are we talking the flower kind or the eatin' kind of sweet pea? I have some sugar snap pea seeds and didn't know when I could plant them. Will be watching this thread. Farmerdill might be able to help. I live in middle GA, near Macon.
Digs

Are you talking English peas (Pisum sativum) or Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus )? Since sweet peas are inedible I will assume you are talking about English peas. English peas will grow anytime the ground is not frozen, they are frostproof up til bloom time. I start planting the smooth seeded cultivars (Willet Wonder) around the winter soltice, follow up- with successive plantings of smooth seeded (Early Alaska) in January http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62321/index.html and wrinkle seeded in early February. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/88806/index.html Try to get them all in before Valentines days. They love cold but can't stand the heat. They do remarkably well.

Sweet Peas...English Peas...the little green ones.... get planted on Valentine's Day here in KY...people swear by it.

I've done it that early, but have done it the end of Feb, first of March too and they seem to produce the same.

I would guess that GA could plant earlier than KY...so Jan is most likely ok...but I do staggered plantings a couple weeks apart to keep the fresh ones coming all spring. (I like 'em raw, eaten standing in the garden)

Thanks, Farmerdill. Let the plantin' begin!
Digs

Thanks

I was talking about English Peas!

Great...I get to PLANT something!!!!

Thanks All

BB

FarmerDill - I was always taught that one shouldn't plant the ornamental Sweet Peas near the edible peas as they were supposed to make the edible peas toxic if you planted them together. I haven't been able to find any articles on this. Do you know anything about it? Old gardener's tale, or something to it?

Sweet peas are toxic, but a different plant altogether. No danger of them crossing that I know of. Probably the story arose from the confusion, caused by the name sweet pea. lots of folks don't know you are not supposed to eat them. They grow in a pod, look a little like small English peas, and they are called sweet peas right. I cringe every time some one calls an English pea a sweet pea. Somebody who does not know better, is going to try nibling on a sweet pea.

I just ordered some Oregon Sugar Pod peas and will be starting my seed as soon as they arrive. :-) Does anyone know if they will grow in containers?

Do peas have to be trellised?

BB

Depend on the cultivar. Some have short stiff vines that only get to about 12 inches tall. At the other end are are those that grow to 4 ft. Any that grow 2 ft or more need to trellised. Even the 20 inch ones benefit from some support.

BB, I have preferred growing Laxton's Progress #9 over the years as they are one of the shorter growing varieties. I prepare the soil then broadcast the seed as if I was throwing out grass seed (except let the seeds land roughly 1-2 inches from each other). Once the plants come up they grow so closely they help support each other plus it keeps the direct sun off the soil helping to keep the soil cooler for good production. (Picture below is peas on the left, onions on the right, something that some folks think shouldn't be done as they believe the two crops will have an adverse affect on each other. As you can see in the pic, I don't seem to have that problem.)

If you choose to stake/trellis your peas then make it a nice sturdy one. That way, when the peas are finished (they'll only produce for a few weeks at most) you can use the trellis for growing your cucumbers on, or even tying some tomato plants to.

I01, you can grow the shorter growing peas in containers pretty easily; the taller ones will still need a trellis and I bet you'll do fine with those in a container that is at least 12 inches deep.

Shoe.

Thanks Shoe.

Do you have a source where I can buy the seed?

BB

BB...I've been getting them at RH Shumway's over the years. They have a bulk section in their catalog for many seeds. (Online website only offers bulk grasses and such.) However, even if you buy 5 pounds they drop down to $4.85/pound. I know I know...that sounds expensive but I consider it to be a multi-purpose crop...the harvest you get more than pays for the cost of the seed plus you have a great green manure crop to turn under after harvest. (One year I broadcast about 3 or 4 pounds and harvested about 70 pounds of peas, unshelled. At least those were the ones we bothered to weigh; lots of times we just move into the pea patch, pick and munch on the spot!)

https://www.rhshumway.com/shumsite/shumsiteviewproduct.aspx?ProductID=16724

Shoe.

Whew ... that's a lotta peas!! ;) Thanks for the info. Hey, will you take a look at this link and tell me if you've ever heard of these? I ordered them because ... well just because they sounded so good. :-)
http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en/product/133/2

101. These are "snow peas" and are widely available in this country. Very good in stir frys. Just be aware that they are NOT snap peas and have to be used before the peas form in the pod. The pods get shucky when the peas form.

101,
I bought a pack of Oregon Sugar Pod peas back in October from a Dollar Store. Paid a dime for them. They were in a rack of seeds that sold 10 for a dollar. Bought different kinds of lettuce, radish and two kinds of peas. I don't plant many veggies so the small packs were all I needed.
Digs

Did they do well for you? Can I go ahead and start them in January in zone B? I believe my south GA heat will be too hard on them later on in the season. I do want some sugar snaps, also but I love looking at on line catalogs, and they usually tend to get me in trouble. LOL

They are less heat tolerant than other peas, so I would plant them as soon as possible. Also remember you have a short harvest window pick them at their prime and they are delicious, one day past and they are virtually inedible.

Thanks, Farmerdill. Haven't grown these before but couldn't resist the price. Will try to harvest early. I love stir-fry veggies.
Digs

Yes ... thanks so much for the info. :-)

Thanks Horseshoe!

Since all you Georgia gardners are together talkin about peas, what do you think about Little Marvels? I have planted them the past couple years, and they taste great, but not a very big yield. I am wondering if that is because I am waiting too late in the spring to plant them or if that is just the character of Little marvels? I doubt it is because of the dirt, I have been blessed with really good dirt and I amend it year round with compost. Whaddya think?

Little Marvel has not been yield competitive since 1900. There are lots of better yielding English peas in the early dwarf class. Laxton's Progress # 9 * Shoes favorite, Dakota, my favorite at the moment, Knight, Frosty .....

I agree....I grew Little Marvel one year and I didn't get near the harvest I get from LP#9. Also tried some variety that had very little foliage but was touted to be "sweet and easy picking because the pods are more visible"....can't remember what that variety was right now (Farmerdill?) but it, too, wasn't very productive.

Will have to give Dakota a try, too.

Shoe.

Tried Novella when it first came out. That is the only afila (leafless) pea that I have tried. Very poor results. Many of todays commercially grown peas are this type. They must yield pretty well in Idaho and vicinity in addition to their suitabilty for machine picking.

Oh ... I sure hope mine do good. I love them. :-) This will be my first season trying to grow peas of any kind, so send up some prayers because these are the only ones I have for the spring.

Yep, that was the one, F-dill. Novella didn't impress me much. And I can see that they must be the perfect pea plant for machine harvesting.

IO1, I think you'll be pleased with your first pea patch! Most folks have never tasted a home-grown fresh picked pea and you'll be wonderfully surprised at the taste...so nice and sweet! I think you'll eat many while standing in the garden, just munching on them. (I bet you'll wish you had planted more though!) :>)

Shoe.

Bronx,
Here in north Fla, near Jax, we aren't all that far apart from each other. I've grown the Sugar Snap every year for the last 10 years or more. In fact, I grow them in the same place year after year. But I never pull up the roots of the spent plants. They are "nitrogen fixators". The roots enhance the soil for next years crop.
Sugar snaps, the variety that is indeterminate, will grow up to 6 feet tall, and would definitely need trellising. I use a simple 2x4 vertical upright structure with a 2x2 tacked on across the top of the uprights, which are spaced about 5' feet apart. To that structure i just tack on a 5' length of basic chicken wire.
The hard question is -- "when to plant" I plant my seeds about 2" apart about 2 weeks prior to the last frost free date for my geo. area. In my area, it generally takes 4-7 days for the seeds to germinate and push thru the chilly soil. But if there is likely to be a late frost, I carefully pile on the cedar mulch to completely cover the new plants. The neat thing is that the taller they get, the more chill they can tolerate. I've seen seasons when my pea plants were up to a foot tall and we had a rogue late frost (maybe 28-30 degrees). didn't bother them a bit. The bigger they get, the hardier they become.
I swear by them, and I always let a few pods totally ripen so that I will have more to plant next season. Just can't beat'em. Pick them when they are very young, like snow peas. Or let them grow fat and then pick them. Even the fat, fully mature ones are totally edible, pod and all. The peas, the pods, all of it. Eat them right out of the garden while you are picking them.
The only downside is that hot weather will do them in. In your area, they will probably crap out by the end of June at the latest. I've never really measured my crop, but my best guess is that a 5' long stretch of chicken wire trellis will give you 2-3 pounds of the best veggie you've ever grown.
What's even neater is that your local grocery store will seldom have them for sale. If they do, they are hi priced, and they are usually pretty bruised because they don't ship well. Always fun when you can grow a tasty treat in your back yard that nobody else has.

Thanks BL:

I am really anxious to try them. My peas have never done well here, probably because I was planting them improperly.

Thanks

Now I'm salivating at all these pea discussions. I'm got sugar snap peas currently in the garden. Kinda makes we want to go tug on them to see if I can get them to grow faster.
:)

Sugar Snap is the best performer of the snap peas that I have tried. Different critter tho than the standard English pea. These you grow for the pods, somewhat like a snow pea, but they more versatile. Unlike the snow peas, the pods can get full like a snap bean giving a much larger harvest window.

The Sugar Snap was a compromise with my DH. I like sweet English shelling peas, he doesn't. DH says 'regular' peas take up too much space in the garden for the amount of return. He will eat the Sugar Snaps and favas. When we get more space, I'll grow both.

Bronx & Mermaid,
I suspect that both of you are in an ideal location to really take advantage of a 'fun pea' to grow. I don't know anything about what grows west of the Mississippi, but for a Georgia Cracker, I suspect that your Georgia clay soil might need to be loosened up a bit, unless you have already done so. Like for most garden veggies, the dirt needs to be well drained, etc, etc. You've seen that advice on the back of every seed packet you've ever bought. And many of us take that advice for granted. But take it to heart. A really 'thick' or dense soil might be good for Vidalias, but it's not very good for anything else.
If you would like to grow the sugar snaps successfully, the relatively small roots they produce really need to have a 'soft' soil in which to grow. Another neat thing about growing them is that it takes very little effort to give their roots what they need. As I mentioned earlier, the roots are relatively small. They don't take up much room at all in the garden. A furrow of 'good dirt', no more than 4" deep and 4" wide along the length of your planting bed, beneath your brand new trellis, will give your Sugar Snap seeds all they need re. a good growing medium. When I dig it up every early spring, I sprinkle a few BB's of Osmocote 4 month fertilizer in the furrow. It just doesn't take any more effort than that.
And for you, Mermaid, -- California, as you well know, is the best location in the US for growing just about any veggie that the rest of the US might need or want. But if you look around, you will find that there is not that much commercial production of Sugar Snap peas, mostly for the reason I mentioned earlier -- they just don't ship well. But that fact benefits you, as well as Bronx.
You both might think I'm a hired hand for a Sugar Snap hustler. Ain't so. Just visit your local garden center, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Spend a buck and a half for your first and last purchase of seeds. Grow them, enjoy them, and save some for next year. I haven't bought a packet of sugar snaps since they first came out as AAS winners more than 10 years ago.
I hope I've convinced you, because it's just an extraordinary veggie that has puttered along beneath the radar horizon for far to long, and it doesn't take much room to try it.

Oh if * only * I had more room! Hmmm, probly could talk the DH into diggin up the back yard. LOL

Thanks blmlb. I'm actually growing Sugar Snaps at the moment. That was our compromise - to plant sugar snaps rather that English peas. Guess I was not very clear on that one. When I get more space I'll have both sugar snaps and English peas. Normally I get better growth this time of year in our "Mediterranean" climate. The weather has been unusually cold this year. I have a thermometer with min/max temp memory planted in the garden. The minimum temperatures have been averaging ~24'F. That's the temp UNDER the row cover.
It gets up to about 76'F to 80'F during the day. The cabbages are enjoying this, but the peas are growing more sluggishly than prior crops. The biggest trouble with Sugar Snaps is that they often don't make it home for dinner. (yum). :)