Question About Growing Peas?

I've been checking with the internet and I am a little confused about growing peas? The info that I have gathered claim that peas provide their own nitrogen and the addition of more nitrogen will encourage growth but little production of pods. If this is so what type of fertilizer does one use? Any other info and/or pictures would be very enlightening to my confusion.

Hey Tplant; I currently have Amish Snap Peas growing in an EB.I use a combination of bone meal,azomite and blood meal to the soil.Less of the blood meal.This reminds me that I still need to plant the Tall Telephone and Thomas Laxton.

What got inside my peas and ate them from the inside out? They left a little hole to escape from. Now I don't have seeds for next spring!

Make sure you work good composting materials into your bed. To help your peas "jump" use innoculant on the seed before planting. You can find that for sale in most seed catalogs. Peas are indeed nitrogen fixers. You can side dress with compost or some 10-10-10. Just use a small amount on the side away from the root system and gently water it in. Are you using a trellis for them to climb? It's ok to let them run, but trellising them is easier on the back. LOL

ByndeweedBeth, what kind of peas? Do you have pictures?

They were early spring sugar snap types. I ate the peas and they were good, but I left some pods to dry so I could get seeds for next year. Something got there first. Sorry I didn't take photos!

Hey ByndweedBeth; That would be Pea and/or Bean weevil.First of all seeds need to be really dry before storing them.You can suspend the pea seeds in a zip-lock bag filled with cold water and heat to 140*F.An easier way is to spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for a few hours-to several.Seeds do have to be completely dry before you freeze them.

Ah, understand. We usually eat them all, I've never had a change to try and dry any. LOL

That will kill the weevils? Were they in there when I was eating them (yuk!)?

Hey ByndweedBeth; Answer to both questions is Yes.The second,microscopic eggs were present.Most natural food sold in America, including grains has an allowable amount (USDA) of insect parts and products and rat hairs and other by-products.
It's usually advised to not think about these kind of things while eating.-

The truth is brutal....

Wow!! I really started something! A OK!!
I was really concerned about the nitrogen for peas. As most of you may know I grow most all in EBs and yes doccat5 I just ordered another trellis staking system from EB people. I will use only one cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer instead of the usual two cups suggested by the manufacturer plus I use Jungle Growth container mix which is excellent. One of my three varieties of peas are Thomas Laxton. They are supposed to be bush peas but one never knows. How do they grow?? Are there really such things as bush type that really don't need support?

Hey Tplant: there are a few cultivars of T.Laxton.The one I grow is the original.The vines grow about 2 1/2 -3 ft.They are not productive by pea standards, but they taste Fabulous!

Good to know zebraman. I'll be planting them in the morning.

Plant you can get shelling peas from 12 inches tall to a little over 5 ft. Thomas Laxton is a medium tall cultivar (up to 3 ft) and does like support. If you can get it in your area, 5-10-10 is much better for peas than 10-10-10. I can no longer get it here, so I use 5-10-15 which works fine for in ground planting. If you want a short vine, I have had good luck with Dakota and Laxton's Progress # 9.

Ditto on Laxton's Progress #9...I've grown it for years and you can plant the seeds quite closely and do so without putting up a trellis. (The plants will support each other.) T, I'd plant several EB's though for a good harvest. I'd hate for you to just get a taste then wish you'd planted 10 times as much!

As for fertilizer, go heavy on the potassium and easy on the N. As for inoculation, it might be helpful but I have seldom seen much difference in using it or not, especially with today's inoculates which tend to be a blend for peas and beans combined (and each variety requires a different type rhizobia).

Have fun! Looking forward to pics of your next garden!
Shoe

It may be the area I'm in horseshoe. I find I get a higher yield and healthier plants if I use the innoculant. Of course I'm also pushing the envelope on putting the the peas early for my area..........grin...girl has to have some fun....LOL

Good info guys! Have a difficult time finding the lower nitrogen fertilizer. The lowest I found was 8-8-8. We do have a couple of farm & feed supply stores which I never thought of trying? I'll bet they would have a low nitrogen fertilizer? I'll check them out. I'm on my way...... Let you know later.....

No luck with the stores! The lowest formula of fertilizer in my vicinity was 10-10-10 and also could not find anymore dolomite lime which I use for my EBs and containers. I've been buying it at Lowes in the 40lb sack but they no longer stock it. I hesitate to use the standard lime because it is fast dissolving and contain far less nutrients. Meanwhile I planted my peas a little while ago. They are (14)Thomas Laxton, (7)Little Marvel,(10) Alaska and (7)Zipper Cream. This is a first for me as far as peas are concerned and I'm looking forward to it. Would appreciate any comments or advice....

Hey Tplant;I use the 30 gal. bins (Sterilite).I build a trellis (7 ft bamboo poles and chicken wire, as wide as the bins and 6 ft tall, in the middle of the bin)I plant 25-30 pea seeds on each side of the trellis-50-60 total for each bin.With the T.Laxton I plant 2 bins this way.I also don't use the dry fertilizer system w/EB.I mix soil and compost with amendments as you would in a regular raised bed.

I bet you'll have good luck with the 10-10-10, TPlant. Especially since with EB's the fertilizer is made available over a period of time (as opposed to in ground planting where the fertilizer would tend to dissolve into the soil much faster).

You've picked some good ones. Little Marvel won't need pea-sticks and is a fairly good tasting pea. I grew Alaska some years back and was happy with it but it needed a trellis.

Looking forward to your harvest!

Shoe

Zipper peas...yummmmm. I have some red rippers coming. Look forward to planting the zippers too. I just love any cow pea and look forward to seeing how they take to an EB.

Most anything will do very well in an EB. By the way "What is a cow pea?" I am very new at growing peas and only started last season in January. I start my melons in May when my tomatos are thru for the season.

Hey Tplant; Cow peas are synonymous with black eyed peas

Actually blackeyes are a type of cowpea. Zipper is a member of a different type, the cream pea. Tho delicious in thier own right, they are a change of pace from other cowpeas, like the blackeyes, crowders etc. They don't color the broth like the others, remain intact, pale in color (Zippers are pale green). taste is lighter. One of the best of the cream type in my opinion.
Edited to add; These like all cowpeas like hot weather. One of the few plants that love July and August here. If they sulk in English pea weather, you might want to try again in the summer with some okra.

A mess of Zippers and snaps ready for the cooking.

This message was edited Dec 6, 2007 7:18 PM

Oh my, that looks yummy. Gonna have to update my pea order I see..........LOL

heaven in a picture. I have been lost in the local harvest/ southern seed exchange catalogs tonight just dreaming and plannning.

You might not just want to grow with okra...you want to eat with it too. Delish...add some cornbread and new potatoes...oooo come on EB's. I love zippers too, am insane over white acre's but they are much smaller and harder to shell, after working with zippers, hard to not just stick with them. I like the different kinds of beans as well...butter beans/speckled butterbeans especially.

This message was edited Dec 6, 2007 8:05 PM

Hey FarmerDill;That is incorrect. Cowpea's ,Cream peas and zipper peas are all
Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata which means cow peas are synonymous with cream and zipper.

Can you recommend a seed grower? I surfered the web but found only one supplier who seems to have been wiped out.....sigh

Hey Doccat5;I am a listed member of SSE and the 07 yearbook lists a couple of hundred.
http://virtual.clemson.com.edu/groups/seed/
This is really a Great small company and seed germination is really high.Great prices too.
Also Seed Dreams-No website Send an email to Tessa Gowans- gowantoseed@yahoo.com Give your name and address and request their catalog.They list 14 varieties.(They also don't charge extra for shipping)

http://www.localharvest.org/store/seeds.jsp
http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html
This is were I can get my 'red rippers'






This message was edited Dec 7, 2007 8:56 AM

Thanks guys, I gotta try these out.

Zebraman, It is true that blackeyes, cream peas, field peas, crowders .., are all the same species generally refered to as cowpeas or Southern peas.. But each sub group has peculiar characteristics, much like bush snap beans, wax beans, pole beans are all P. vulgaris or Halloween pumpkins, zucchini, yellow crooknecks, scallops, acorns... are all C. pepo. There are multiple cultivars in each sub group. The point is that if you want cream peas, Red Rippers, crowders, etc you don't ask for blackeyes. Pinkeyes are very similar to blackeyes in shape and taste but are also treated as distinctly different.

Hey Farmerdill; That is not true.My earlier post was a generalization for Tplant that didn't know what Cowpeas were.But since he lives in FL. I assumed he would know what blackeyed peas were.Maybe you should contact SSE and explain what the differences are.They list ALL cowpeas together in the yearbook with no delineation between the cultivars within the species.
Ripper Peas, Cream Peas, Crowder Peas, and Zipper Peas are all colloquial names for Cowpeas.And they are Not different types,but exactly the same types.

I always thought it was just the oppostie, That cowpea was the colloquial name. I always thought that every pea was a man unto himself, and the cowpea just meant southern peas OR not english peas. As for blackeyes in FL. As someone who is always looking for a fresh blackeye, you would be surprised to learn how few really are grown here. GA, TX,MS,AL...the pea belt ( in my mind only...im not involved in the technical conversation)

Thank GOODNESS blackeye peas do well enough in the NV desert (having lived for 7 years in GA, I am desperately trying to recreate Southern Gardening and Southern Eating in the High Desert... )

Another fact that I discovered about peas is that they don't like wind and unfortuneately I set one EB in a breezeway
not knowing about the wind factor? They are not developing well. I'm going to try to move them today but it may be very disruptive to them as they are trellissed and there is bound to be damage but I don't see where I have a choice. Boy! I know so much about tomatoes but I have a lot to learn about vegetables?

Tplant, don't we all. We scrounged an old set of bed springs, many moons ago. DH cut it in half vertically so right now I'm trying to figure out where I want to put them this year. I may but them on the downward side of our shed, and let it act as a wind break.