[Jackypam]

Hi, half of 2 rows of my mangetout are pale brown and papery.  A couple at the end of the rows were always like that, I just kept watering them and hoped they would recover.  As they have grown since it got hot the problem seems to have spread up the row affecting the plants from the bottom up.  Any ideas please?  It isn't shortage of water.

[BabbyAnn]

If you sowed them early and you have already cropped them several times, they may be at the end of their productive lives and dying off.  They do tend to have a short season which is why it is suggested to sow a few seeds every other week from spring through to about early-mid July (location dependant of course) is a good idea to extend the season.

The other possibilities that I can think of is (1) at some stage they were short of water and once that happens, they don't seem to recover despite regular watering after or (2) something has happened to the roots (maybe they've been damaged when hoeing or overwatered, a fungal problem or something eating the roots?) so no amount of watering is actually reaching the rest of the plant. 

[Jackypam]

Ok thanks. I'll sow some more and see what happens. It's kind of mid July...