Snap peas and hot weather

Cindy wanted to have some sugar snaps last year, so as fall approached I planted the first week of October. The seedlings struggled at first (heat?), then grew well, had quite a few flowers the first week of Dec, got ONE pea pod (it was tasty) before frost 12/13 knocked all the flowers off.

I could try to fit a crop in this spring between last frost and summer heat with seedlings up 3/1, protect with a hot frame for a few weeks, then 60 days until the average daily temp would reach 90.

You folks in the warmer climes; might we get a crop in or would we just be spinning our wheels?

Thanks,

Frank

Dunno, I can grow the quick maturing cultivars here, planted the first of February ( six weeks before average last frost date) for harvest late May - early June. They will stand temps in the twenties until they bloom.

Aha! This will work.

Thanks,

Frank

I grew sugar snaps last year, planted in mid January, I think. Direct sown into my raised bed, no protection. They did well until the heat and spider mites took over. Go for it!

I noticed this afternoon that the pea plants are thriving except for the tips which are freeze damaged, and that there are many flowers. 'Course there are no insects to pollinate the flowers. Maybe they'll make an early crop!

I'm not 100% positive, but I think peas are self-pollinating. No bees necessary, which is a good thing, this time of year. :)

We had a very short spring last year and the sugar snaps ended up doing most of their blooming in 80-90*F windy weather. The plants were somewhat stunted, only reaching 3-4 ft (instead of 6 ft), and production was about half what I used to get in the San Joaquin Valley, CA, but they were sweet and delectible. (Part of this might have been the fact that the wind here is very desicating, and even if you water well, when the hot winds are blowing, the plants can't drink enough water fast enough) This spring I am going to tripple the number of plants so that if this happens again, I will at least have a reasonable crop. It's pretty challenging trying to make green stuff grow here in the desert :-)

You're right about growing greens in the desert, kmom246. The first spinach we planted bolted almost as it germinated (LOL). Our best luck managing soil moisture has been by mixing partially composted hay in the soil and mulching heavily with it. Still, for greens that only goes so far - when it's get dry and hot, the plants just can't keep up. One of my to-dos this week is to seed some snap peas so I can maybe beat the weather if spring is short this year.

Is SIlver Springs near Las Vegas? According to the gubmint climate history website, Las Vegas and our patch of AZ have very similar climes.

Frank

Silver Springs near Reno - the summers are probably like yours, but I don't know how cold you get in the winters. We're part of The Great Basin high desert, if that means anything to you (until 2 years ago when we moved here, it didn't mean anything to me :-)