reubent
Pro Member
Posts: 389
Joined: May 2011
|
Post by reubent on Jan 15, 2020 22:59:15 GMT -5
I heard long ago of someone successfully growing peas through hot weather by mulching deep and keeping them irrigated.
Anyone try it? That's english peas or snap peas, they generally fade out pretty fast when hot weather hits.
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jan 15, 2020 23:24:48 GMT -5
Peas are basically determinate. They set one crop of pods and then are done. They do like cool and damp springs so heavy mulching would help that in warmer and dryer areas.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 16, 2020 7:03:27 GMT -5
They usually burn up here before they are finished producing but irrigation and giving them some shade helps keep them going a bit longer but once they decide that it's too hot, they are done for no matter what you do. They just turn yellow then brown and shrivel up.
|
|
|
Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 16, 2020 9:40:38 GMT -5
My peas are almost always done by mid-May. In particularly hot years, they can die off in April. They just burn up in the heat, even in Earthboxes with consistent soil moisture. I have wondered whether I could get them to produce longer with a 40% shade cloth, but I doubt it would work for more than a week or two. Peas just don't like it hot.
In the South, it's a whole lot easier to just sow okra, long beans, or cowpeas when the English peas/snap peas burn up. Any of those will thrive in the summer heat with no babying.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 17, 2020 7:19:21 GMT -5
I doubt it would work for more than a week or two. Peas just don't like it hot. Laura_in_FL, that's about right. You will get an extra week or two but that is useful if it is just an hot spell and will cool off in a few days which often happens here. It is also useful if you have a bunch of pods almost ready to harvest but they need another week.
|
|
|
Post by spacecase0 on Jan 17, 2020 22:55:06 GMT -5
I tried to get peas to grow into summer, they seem to die with anything over 95F for 4 days in a row, nothing I can do to stop that, so I gave up in that direction . now I use a partial glass cover to make the growing conditions better when it is to cold for them. this gives me a way longer growing season for them.
|
|
|
Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 18, 2020 11:32:10 GMT -5
I have the opposite situation from what brownrexx described because once the spring heat arrives, it's here to stay. In some years it gets hot enough to kill the peas in April. However, in winter, when it's cold, it's rarely cold for more than a few days before we get some milder weather. So, like spacecase0 , I have been experimenting with pushing the season into the colder months. Fall sowing is not recommended here because we have to plant so late - it's well into October or even early November some years before it's cool enough to plant peas. So we don't get much production before the short days and colder weather slow the peas down. Pest and disease pressures are also higher in the fall. Add in that in some years we get hard freezes that will kill producing plants. (Ironically, producing pea plants can't withstand cold as well as seedlings!) So fall planting can mean my plants freeze just about the time they start to produce. Protecting my peas from freezes is difficult because I grow tall, vining varieties due to my limited garden space. And even a light frost can kill the blooms and young pods and temporarily halt production. But, if we have a mild winter, the peas survive it without protection and produce off and on through winter. So sometimes fall planting pays off. But one thing I didn't realize until recently is that peas are more or less determinate; at least now I understand why the fall peas sometimes stop producing and die before the spring heat arrives! So even if I succeed with a fall planting of peas for winter production, I still need to plant another crop in late winter to ensure spring production continues until the heat arrives. Killing freezes are less likely here after Feb 1, so UF advises direct-sowing peas in late January or early February - that way the peas will emerge after the biggest risk of killing freezes has past. Small seedlings can also be covered easily if there is a late freeze. So, another tactic I have tried with some success is what I am doing this year: spring sowing 2-3 weeks early inside. Then at the normal sowing time of late January/early February I transplant ~4" seedlings. Sowing early indoors usually give me production a few weeks earlier and a better chance of getting some harvest even if the spring heat arrives early. It also helps since birds seem to love yanking up pea seedlings during the first few days after emergence. By transplanting older seedlings, the seedlings are less likely to get pulled out by birds. The risk of this method is that the peas get transplant shock and either die or get stunted. I don't sow more than three weeks early, since pea seedlings don't seem to tolerate transplant as well after they get bigger than 4"-6" tall. If I have plenty of seeds, sometimes I further mitigate the risk of transplant shock by sowing some seeds in the row between the transplants at transplant time. A few weeks later, I go through the peas with a sharp pair of scissors and thin them, keeping the healthiest, most vigorous plants. Usually the "keepers" are the transplanted plants, but if something goes wrong with acclimating or transplanting, I have seedlings from the direct-sown seeds there for backup. I know my transplant and backup-sow method is wasteful of seed and far too labor-intensive for a farmer, but I am in a marginal area for growing peas. Farmers generally don't even try. Usually only home gardeners and boutique market gardeners bother with peas here. (Needless to say, the quality of the "fresh" peas in the stores here is terrible and they are very expensive - when you can find them at all. I grew up on canned peas, and so I grew up hating peas. I didn't realize how tasty they are until I grew my own. They taste like an entirely different vegetable!)
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2020 12:43:05 GMT -5
Generally, garden peas can be either determinate or indeterminate; generally speaking, those that are short vined are the determinate.
Geez, I do love fresh garden peas.
|
|
|
Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 18, 2020 13:23:54 GMT -5
Hmmm...@imp, the the vining types are generally indeterminate, then I don't know why my fall-planted peas give out before the spring season finishes, whereas the same variety planted in spring will produce until the heat kills it.
But I have seen the fall-planted vining peas give out early enough times, and I have seen it happen with more than one variety of vining pea, that something must be going on. And the peas are grown in the same soil, same water, same sun conditions, etc.
Maybe it's something to do with the changes in day length?
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2020 14:22:05 GMT -5
That well could be the factor, day length. I have been on the look out for the taller vine type pea seeds that are wrinkled for some time now. It's said the wrinkled peas are sweeter than the fully rounded peas when grown out. I've grown peas but don't know a lot about them.
i do know I sure like to eat them, though, and fresh out of the garden is just so amazingly better, like a home grown fully ripe tomato is better. Real butter, a touch of salt and pepper and I am munching them down!!
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 18, 2020 16:38:07 GMT -5
I never heard this about determinate or indeterminate peas. I grow bush type English peas called Early Freezer that are 24" tall. I like them to be short because the sparrows go after them and eat the plants. I can cover the shorter varieties to protect them. See what I have to go through to keep the sparrows off? My peas seem to keep flowering and I usually get several pickings before it gets too hot but they keep flowering until then. Laura_in_FL , I have discovered that peas do not mind being crowded so I usually plant mine that way, maybe only an inch apart. It is such a short season that I like to harvest as many as I can. In PA people try to get their peas planted by St. Patrick's Day but often is is still very cold then and sometimes it even snows. I usually pull my mulch back and cover the soil with plastic to try to warm it before planting and I also soak my seeds overnight to encourage them to sprout faster. Too much time in the cold soil will cause them to rot.
|
|
|
Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 20, 2020 12:27:55 GMT -5
@imp, when I have peas in the garden, sometimes I eat them straight off the plants. If not, I pick them just before dinner. Ideally they go from plant to table in minutes. brownrexx, mine are pretty crowded, too. The limiting factor on how many peas I plant is space on the trellis above my Earthbox. With the tall, vining types I grow, about 10-12 plants per EB means a completely stuffed trellis. My peas are outside acclimating now. The next two nights will probably be the coldest of the winter, 30 and 29 degrees respectively. I will probably cover them at night for the next two nights to be safe. I wouldn't ordinarily cover pea seedlings at those temperatures, but these seedlings they haven't been outside very long. (They did take the 35F low this morning completely in stride.) Once these next two cold nights are past, I will transplant them, and then pray that the heat doesn't come too early!
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jan 21, 2020 20:28:10 GMT -5
T
They are called English peas for a reason. Need cool and wet climate like much of England.
Martin
he truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
reubent
Pro Member
Posts: 389
Joined: May 2011
|
Post by reubent on Jan 22, 2020 2:13:47 GMT -5
When I was little the row of english shell peas were the main garden attraction, few of them made it to the house. That was before snap peas appeared in the seed catalogs. Then we started growing them and haven't grown the shell peas in a long time. But got some seed to try them again along with the edible pod style. Thought I'd see how long into the summer they will go with heavy mulch, and might try shade cloth too. If I can find time to do it. But I plan on spending full time at it, so maybe it'll get done. Just have a lot to do. Getting a track loader fixed now, gotta build fence around several acres and put together a mowing machine with pickup to collect mulch.
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jan 22, 2020 9:06:46 GMT -5
I normally do not have to grow shell peas. If you buy a can of peas in a store, a good chance that they were grown in Wisconsin. (Same for corn and snap beans.) Until recently, a farmer friend has allowed me to pick all I want of his beans, corn, and peas. Beans have been shifted to lighter grounds while his corn acreage increased to make up for the loss. Past two years his pea acreage has been on hold. As an indication of how our food supply is, the decrease is due to there being a glut of canned peas on hand. Hence I have had to grow my own peas during that time and have Green Arrow and Alaska scheduled to grow this year.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 22, 2020 9:33:34 GMT -5
Canned peas? Yuk. I was forced to eat them as a kid and hated them - still do. No comparison to home grown fresh or frozen ones. I just bought pea seeds yesterday and am planning on growing extra. They are so good and I would like extras to freeze.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2020 12:59:03 GMT -5
I am getting so impatient to garden!
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jan 22, 2020 13:15:35 GMT -5
Canned peas? Yuk. I was forced to eat them as a kid and hated them - still do. No comparison to home grown fresh or frozen ones. I just bought pea seeds yesterday and am planning on growing extra. They are so good and I would like extras to freeze. I can peas with just about anything from the garden. Basic is peas and onions. Then peas and carrots, peas and corn, peas and green beans, and peas mixed with all of above plus potatoes, sweet potatoes, and celeriac. Did I miss anything? When all else fails, just peas. Whenever I came home with 3 or 4 shopping baskets full of pods, wife and I would have long sessions of filling gallon Ziplocks after flash-freezing. Problem with peas is that they are done before anything else is ready so stashing them in the freezer for later is often the only option. Last big canning effort began with 5 gallons of mixed vegetables in October. Half gallon of peas were from early July. Forgot to mention something totally about the topic title since it pertains to weather. If growers can get them into the fields in March here, those fields are the first to green up. You may be able to buy "June peas" in stores. Farmers get a premium for them and consumer also pays more. There really is that much difference in quality over July peas. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 22, 2020 16:41:07 GMT -5
I wasn't able to grow enough of my own peas for freezing so last year I found a local farm store who sold them in the pods and I bought a big basket of them. I forget the price but I was very happy to get them. We just recently started eating them and they taste so good. I love frozen peas but hate the canned ones.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2020 17:59:31 GMT -5
I love sweet garden peas enough that I'll eat them most ways that I can get them, LOL. The canned peas have improved over what my Mom used to buy when I was a child, but even liked those.
I don't like those fat starchy type garden peas, we used to call them "field peas", not speaking of cowpeas. That is why I am always looking for the wrinkled type peas,and especially the pole types, they are sweeter and yum! But, I do like the starchy ones for pea soups.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jan 22, 2020 18:03:58 GMT -5
The canned peas have improved over what my Mom used to buy when I was a child, but even liked those. When I was a kid we did not have the variety of veggies that I do now. We always had a veggie with dinner but it rotated between the common stuff like peas, corn, limas, succotash and maybe cole slaw. I didn't like canned peas but my brother did so mom alternated with one time we had canned peas and the next time we had frozen peas. Kids did not get special meals at my house. You ate what everyone else ate or else!
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2020 3:34:06 GMT -5
My Mom did not make special meals, we ate what was on the table and most times with great relish as we were hungry after working or playing. You ate what there was or not, and mostly we all ate it up, other than my Mom's and my Great Liver War.
But Mom also often tried to think of what we liked best and would add things that were popular.
|
|