[pigguns]

This year I'm going to crack- Peas!  Mange touts, sugar snaps and normal pea type peas!
after having a bit of a look around the forum 'yes mum I used the 'search facility'!  ), I'm a bit wiser but still unsure.
In the RED corner we have-
Growster and his successional 4? sowings

In the BLUE corner we have
Pea God DD and his 'a few early in the greenhouse' and one main crop.

Now- I've had awful pea weavil, the year of the frazzled stunted pea, moused seeds and rotted seeds.  I've had a very few good moments- one sowing raised in guttering and then in my home very heavy clay!  I don't have a bird problem at all.
However apart from last year's surprise lovely mange touts which came and went in 3 weeks that's my lot from about 4 packets.  I'm thinking maybe because that row was N -> South facing the back ones got shaded.

My plot seems way too hot and the light silt is very well drained.  Can I shade them with debris netting? Can I clamber them up the back of some debris netting?  I'm thinking 'bean trench' to improve water retention....help!

[Robster]

Pigguns,
I was rather hoping that you had distilled the wisdom of The Growster and DD and was going to come up with a definitive view.  Then I could simply employ this king of pea growing techniques.  Unfortunately not forthcoming and I will blunder on like last year.  But I am going to do an early sowing in route trainers in February.  One thing I think I did learn was that my late peas growing near the late courgettes covered in powdery mildew got the same powdery mildew on them.  Surprised me.

[surbie100]

I'd also vote for early sowings. My late ones all had pods which were either occupied (bleurgh) or white with mildew.

I sowed my sugar snaps east-west and they were fab until they got mildew too.

[mumofstig]

Lots of early sowings here, harvest, then freeze and get something else growing in the space 

Works for me 

[tosca100]

Last year was the first time I grew peas seriously. Sowed outside in feb and they were geat, but will not bother with sugar snap or mange tout this year, just more for freezing. If the weather is kind here I plan a second sowing late summer.

[Beetroot Queen]

My early peas last year were so slow to get going they may as well have been late, when do you start early peas

[Growster...]

Ha ha ha, Robster, I fear that DD would win with three submissions, at least two falls and then a knockout, but my only tip on peas is sow in succession, in modules of about three, and give them plenty of space if you can!

As for seed, we save all our own from the previous year, but may just introduce a new packet this year! They're not going in for some time, as the freezer still has enough to last us until the summer...

[jaydig]

Lots of early sowings here, harvest, then freeze and get something else growing in the space 

Works for me 

I do the same MoS. Peas are about the only veg that I really don't mind frozen, so I sow mine early, crop them and freeze them. The only problem with doing this is that if you have a really good crop you end up with 'podder's thumb'.

[sunshineband]

Lots of early sowings here, harvest, then freeze and get something else growing in the space 

Works for me 

I do the same MoS. Peas are about the only veg that I really don't mind frozen, so I sow mine early, crop them and freeze them. The only problem with doing this is that if you have a really good crop you end up with 'podder's thumb'.

Snap! (and that is not the sound of a pea pod being opened  )

I start mine off three or four to a three inch module and plant them out when they are about two inches tall. I surround them with sticks from last year's Autumn raspberries to keep the pigeons off and use slug bait too. I grow tall ones like Alderman so they get above these sticks  (about 7ft last year overall) so I make a frame like DD's and wind baling twine around the outside to hold them up and net them across the top or the pigeons use it as a landing pad and strip off the leaves.

No pea moth as they are out by mid March.

Freezer drawer filled by early Summer and then space for something else; last year it was dwarf French beans

Same with mangetout, that went on a bit longer, and then were followed by salady stuff

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

I only grow mangetout and sugar snaps (first time for sugar snaps last year and they were amazing!). I sow them successionally about 1m at a time in a trench DD style. I do another sowing when the first has come through.

Last year I started sowing in early April and was harvesting them from mid-June. Sowed until end of May and was picking until end of July (at least that's what my diary says-not necessarily 100% accurate!).

[pigguns]

Oh Lord....   Thanks guys that's all very insipiring that it can be cracked...

So I think the next question, same as Beetroot Q is when do can you start them off (I was planning to follow Growster but he's not doing any earlys!? 

Especially you sunshineband because if she has them finished by March I guess that means very soon...

[mumofstig]

SSB's diary for last year -
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=111682.msg1290799#msg1290799

I warm my soil up under plastic sheet and sow mine direct at about the same time and leave the sheet on until they have germinated.

[New shoot]

After a little reminder from DD, I have gone for a really early sowing of mangetout this year. A few modules each of Kent Blue and Golden Podded.  They were on the kitchen windowsill until they germinated and are now out in the greenhouse 

These are for potting on into buckets in the greenhouse for a really early crop.  We were all very envious when DD tried this a couple of years ago and got great results 

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69457.msg1192551#msg1192551

[mumofstig]

I thought DD grew his in a frost free greenhouse?
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69457.msg1126608#msg1126608

[DD.]

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