[Aunt Sally]

... and then put on enviromesh which is left on until picking.

How many peas do you grow each year Salmo.  Mine cover about 30 square metres and some are 3 ft high and require a cage at least 4 ft high by about 18 ft square.  Enviromesh would be very expensive and debris netting is not pea moth proof. 

[BicesterKev]

I went to pick my first dinners worth from my 30foot row last week. Opened 4 pods and all 4 had a little wriggler in them. I gave my lad a pair of sacateurs and got him to chop the lot down! I wasn't going to risk serving a dinner with a maggot in as my lot are such a fussy lot that they wouldn't eat another thing that I grew.

It was my first time at growing peas - I didn't spray the crop at all, so that is probably my first valuable lesson in pea growing. I just need to learn from it next year.

[MickyB]

......Enviromesh would be very expensive and debris netting is not pea moth proof.

So debris netting is not effective? Dang! it is what I was planning on using, time to think again then.

At least the pigeons don't like peas here.

[Aunt Sally]

There are different grades of debris netting some have a finer mesh than others.

[MickyB]

I didn't know that either - I brought some from ebay the size is not specified but its the same as this..... http://www.ebay.com/itm/350830454093;jsessionid=9CA3A4D49425E8B9F3454ECE6F1DE4CA?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D350830454093%26_rdc%3D1

[Beetroot queen]

We had the pea moth this year, ewwww puts me off peas to be fair. Just something gross about them.
Enviromesh is expensive so i will use what i can but the rest will be sprayed. That was my plan this year but somehow the provado is still sat waiting and the pea moth has already been busy.  why do my plans never work.

[Salmo]

... and then put on enviromesh which is left on until picking.

How many peas do you grow each year Salmo.  Mine cover about 30 square metres and some are 3 ft high and require a cage at least 4 ft high by about 18 ft square.  Enviromesh would be very expensive and debris netting is not pea moth proof.

I just grow 2 X 10ft rows. Put in hazel pea sticks appropriate height for the variety, drape enviromesh over and seal each side and ends with weights. Alternatively use DD method with stakes and string and drape mesh over. I have had my enviromesh for about 5 years and I can see it lasting for another 5 so the cost is not much per year. Probably cheaper to buy Birdseye frozen. I have tried debris netting but I did get some maggots. Not sure if the moths got through the mesh, wriggled through at the joining strips or my construction left gaps.

[seaside]

I went to pick my first dinners worth from my 30foot row last week. Opened 4 pods and all 4 had a little wriggler in them. I gave my lad a pair of sacateurs and got him to chop the lot down!

Kev, different people have different crops and different size crops. Best practice is for one's own individual circumstance.
If you wanted to try the chemical free method and are worried about cost, how a bout planting a high yield dwarf variety which you can then comfortably, and more importantly, effectively fleece a 30 foot row for £2 at Poundland. And the fleece is strong enough to be able to reuse most of it after the peas. "Investing" in Enviromesh for a 30 foot row would cost you the best part of £20 but would last donkey's ears. And what's more a dwarf variety means far, far less supporting structures.
While most commercial growers of huge pea crops obviously have different considerations and costings, us allotmenteers are far more flexible. Barrier methods suit small scale growing.

[Aunt Sally]

Have you sewn the enviromesh together to make wider pieces, Salmo ?

[Salmo]

Have you sewn the enviromesh together to make wider pieces, Salmo ?

No

[Aunt Sally]

It's not very wide - 1.8m or so  :blink:

How do you join it so that moth can't get in ?

[Aunt Sally]

"Investing" in Enviromesh for a 30 foot row would cost you the best part of £20 but would last donkey's ears.

I would like to know where to buy enough enviromesh to cover a 30ft row of peas for that price. Seaside.

This would only do one side of a 3 meter row for just under £10. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/enviromesh

[Beetroot queen]

"Investing" in Enviromesh for a 30 foot row would cost you the best part of £20 but would last donkey's ears.

I would like to know where to buy enough enviromesh to cover a 30ft row of peas for that price. Seaside.

This would only do one side of a 3 meter row for just under £10. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/enviromesh

I wAnt some too for 20 quid infact i'll have a truck load and sell it on 

[seaside]

Well, just a little bit of googling will give you thishttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enviromesh-Bulk-rolls-Various-sizes-/321158432323?lgeo=1&clk_rvr_id=502603797616&vectorid=229508.. that's less than the  £2 a metre I quoted and that took me a minute. And that's before any of us think on our feet. We all go on about free nitrogen from legumes etc rather than paying out at the garden centre, brilliantly effective cheap green manures that easily outperform many off the shelf fertilisers. Then the same applies to any garden product, provided the desire to do so is there... get asking for overspends at your local farm, club together, whatever. I personally buy it off my communal allotment association, about £1.90 per metre for the 2.1m width. There ws a demand, we got off our backsides and sourced it.

I did say my solution was to grow "dwarf" pea varieties, and hence a 2.1m width right over the row. A tasty pea is a tasty pea. I used to think French beans should only be grown up huge beanpoles. I don't anymore having tasted and grown fantastic dwarf versions. I am currently trialling a dwarf borlotti. Can't quite bring myself to growing dwarf runners if they exist. Some things are sacrosanct.

In the end, if we club together we get real prices, and in the end, if we have the desire, we will resource it. The trouble is it's too easy for an individual to rely on a chemical fix that's in your face 24/7, and that is how the agri/chemi industry has shaped itself.
If you want enviromesh at a proper price it's out there.

[Aunt Sally]

We have no allotment shop and I have nowhere to store the amount of net I would require for my pea crop between uses.  My bird netting for the pigeons packs down into a large carrier bag.

You really must realise that gardeners must be allowed to use the method of crop production to suit their own needs facilities and pockets.