[wbmkk]

I have some Alderman seeds, which I hope to sow in the next few weeks.

What support method is best for tall peas please ?

I know a wigwam, or long double row of canes is good for runner beans and the climbing French beans, but beans are generally spaced out quite a lot, where as peas I have seen sown are very close together.

Surely I can't be putting bamboo canes every 2-3 inches along each row.

I know, in an ideal world I would use the steel reinforcement mesh, but getting this and transporting to my allotment would probably be expensive.

I've seen very cheap and flimsy netting in the £ shops .. is this suitable ?

[JayG]

Not a fan of wrestling with bean netting, so I use long canes spaced about 15" apart, and then plastic twine tied and wound horizontally at intervals as the peas grow so they have something to hang on to.

Due to space issues I now grow them round a vertical wigwam (i.e. the canes don't come together at the top which gives the peas more room - works well if you add one or two cross-braces and at least 1 stake to stop it blowing over.)

A straight row can act like a large spinnaker when the peas are fully grown - when I last grew them like that I finished up with additional buttressing canes all over the place to hold it up, when what I should have done is use a few strong stakes as well as canes rather than just canes.

[Kleftiwallah]

I'm considering growing Alderman up a lattice of 8' bamboo canes.

Cheers,   Tony.

[mumofstig]

I have a roll of stiff, green plastic coated wire like this but mine is wider I tie it to the support canes along the row.

This supports most of the weight and what grows taller is just held in place with twine from cane to cane along each side.

I can roll it up and put it in the shed at the end of the season 

Tony, peas don't twine like beans do - you may have to tie them to the canes.

[Yorkie]

Not a fan of wrestling with bean netting, so I use long canes spaced about 15" apart, and then plastic twine tied and wound horizontally at intervals as the peas grow so they have something to hang on to.

Due to space issues I now grow them round a vertical wigwam (i.e. the canes don't come together at the top which gives the peas more room - works well if you add one or two cross-braces and at least 1 stake to stop it blowing over.)

A straight row can act like a large spinnaker when the peas are fully grown - when I last grew them like that I finished up with additional buttressing canes all over the place to hold it up, when what I should have done is use a few strong stakes as well as canes rather than just canes.

Any chance of a piccie of your wigwam at some point, JayG?  Sounds interesting but I can't quite visualise it.

[Maarten]

I just came back from my plot where I set up a support using the wire mentioned in the previous post. Worked really well last year, although it may not have been as tall as yours need to be. It was about 1.20 meter high.

Best wishes,

Maarten

[Maarten]

It would have been the previous post if I had been 2 minutes faster

[Yorkie]

It would have been the previous post if I had been 2 minutes faster

 

[JayG]

Not a fan of wrestling with bean netting, so I use long canes spaced about 15" apart, and then plastic twine tied and wound horizontally at intervals as the peas grow so they have something to hang on to.

Due to space issues I now grow them round a vertical wigwam (i.e. the canes don't come together at the top which gives the peas more room - works well if you add one or two cross-braces and at least 1 stake to stop it blowing over.)

A straight row can act like a large spinnaker when the peas are fully grown - when I last grew them like that I finished up with additional buttressing canes all over the place to hold it up, when what I should have done is use a few strong stakes as well as canes rather than just canes.

Any chance of a piccie of your wigwam at some point, JayG?  Sounds interesting but I can't quite visualise it.

As you can see the peas are in my greenhouse (grew climbing Frenchies in the GH and sugarsnaps outdoors last year, but the peas got seriously attacked by thrips, so I'm trying it the other way round this year.)

The principle's the same though (albeit on a smaller scale,) and hopefully you can see the cross-bracing, which apart from stabilising the structure, stops the upright canes from bending inwards when you start adding the horizontal twines, which of course would result in them slipping down faster than Nora Batty's stockings! 

Outdoors, I add a hardwood stake driven in and lashed to one of the upright canes - the arrangement worked well for several years until the pea thrips came along (they grew to about 7' outdoors - I'm just a little nervous about what they might try to achieve in the GH!   )


         

[Yorkie]

Ah, OK, see what you mean, thanks.

[wbmkk]

         

Your 4 cane square wigwam looks perfect. Thanks for the picture.

I think I'll try setting up a few of these along a row.

How many peas could be grown on this support, if the canes were at about 1 foot spacing.

Would I pop in the seeds, or more likely small plants  next to each cane, maybe 2 per cane .... or plant several in the internal square area

[Lastcast]

Read DD's Pea Advice in the FAQ section

[JayG]

Peas can be grown as close as 1" apart - what really matters (apart from a humus-rich soil) is that they've got something to hang on to as they reach for the sky. They don't climb in the same way that runner beans do, so all you have to do is provide something for their tendrils to hang on to, and also make sure that however large or small your 'contraption' is that it won't fall over when the going gets tough (i.e. windy!)

[Headgardener22]

I use a single line of 2 inch pig netting for each row of peas supported with canes every few feet.

[RookieJim]

I used a similar method as Jay last year. Pea canes spaced out along the row and tied some twine around as the peas grew. Not the best pic here but I think you can just about see in the top left: