[Kajazy]

I'm hoping to grow some Alderman peas this year - I understand they grow pretty tall - will they be able to climb up a traditional runner bean frame, or do I need to put up some netting or similar?

[mumofstig]

They don't climb like beans do, I tie twine along the rows, from cane to cane to keep them upright. Even with the netting at the back of them they still needed the strings along the row. They're a bit wayward 

[gobs]

As mum says, different climbers: one is a twister, other is a catcher. I do not find this too much of a problem though.

[sunshineband]

Thanks for the advice. I have only grown short peas before and kept them up with old fashioned pea sticks.

Clearly insufficient for Aldermans 

[GrannieAnnie]

I grow my Alderman up canes, but keep the canes closer together than you do beans.  They are a bit wayward, you may find 3 or 4 of them end up growing up the same cane, or going along horizontally, but I find it easier than messing about with netting! 

[mumofstig]

Here's an old post with a pic of DD's tall peas.
It's how I do peas each side of a runner bean style frame, with the canes about 3ft apart along the row.
So there's netting at the back of each pea trench and twine along the front, to stop them falling forward, as they do   It may seem like overkill, but my site is windy.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=71083.msg811155#msg811155

[DD.]

I was also fortunate enough to acquire these:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69457.msg873976#msg873976

[GrannieAnnie]

Oooh Dave, they look good!   

[DD.]

Lockers in a previous life on North Sea oil rigs.

A friend of mine was moving house & asked me if I could use them and about a dozen 6' scaffold poles.

The rest is history!

[whiskywill]

How do you harvest the peas which will inevitably grow between the frames? Is the mesh large enough to get a hand through?

[DD.]

The "inevitable" didn't happen.

The mesh is quite small.

[shokkyy]

I grew Alderman last year, on a frame made of 8 foot canes with netting behind each side and string running along the front of them a la DD. Worked perfectly. They were very easy to pick and look after. And they tasted lush, so this year I'm doing a longer row

[Kajazy]

I don't suppose you have any photos, do you? With no experience (and also NO apptitude for diy), I'm finding it hard to picture...

[mumofstig]

Look at the pic in the link I gave above. Take away the wall and add another set of poles on the other side, just like a runner bean A frame but with the poles further apart, because the peas grow up the netting rather than the poles.
( runner bean frame pics )
drop some netting down from the ridge (inside the poles) on either side for the peas to grow up.
Add the strings across the front to keep the pea stems against the netting