[Pep]

Hi,

Please don't laugh at my ignorance but should I nip out the tops of peas and runner bean plants to encourage more shoots, as you do with sweet peas for instance?

Pauline

[mumofstig]

I've never done it with peas............but what do i know
But i always do it to the runners when they're half way up the poles

[DD.]

I NEVER nip out either.

[Pep]

Thank you mumofstig and DD.

Pauline

[DD.]

Looks like we're consistent with the peas. To be jhonest I've never heard of nipping beans out. I get enough of a tangle at the top of the canes as it is!

[Aunt Sally]

Why ever do you do that Mum ?  

You can pinch your runners out when they have gone to the top of their poles/strings but not before that !



...or is this an April Fool 

[mumofstig]

well my dad's theory was that you pinched them out to get the  maximum number of shoots to flower.......before they get to the top and billow about.
So i've always done the same
Never caused a problem

[Aunt Sally]

You know the law Mum.

We need photographic proof 

[mumofstig]

You'll have along while to wait for pics of runners............being the sensible( ) sort i haven't even started them yet

(Plus a new digital camera that i still have to work out the destructions for )

[Aunt Sally]

We can wait 

[Pep]

I started some of mine last month but our weather is much more predictable than UK.  Trouble is, I've got UK seeds so it's a case of setting a few in different places and see how they fair.  The first lot are going in an area that will only be in the sun up till about 2pm each day.  I think our mid-summer sun would frazzle them!

Day time temperatures are now lower 60's to lower 70's and night time mid 30's to low 40's.  Would you put them in now or still wait a little longer?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Pauline

[harrymac]

Day time temperatures are now lower 60's to lower 70's and night time mid 30's to low 40's.  Would you put them in now or still wait a little longer?

You need to wait until the danger of frost has gone before putting runner beans out. If you have night temperatures in the 30s then you're probably getting ground frost at least.

[Babstreefern]

I don't nip out peas, because at the end of the day, they do only grow to about 2/3ft.  With runner beans, I nip them out when they reach the tops of my canes which are the 8ft ones, driven in about a foot.  They are nipped out to stop blackfly.  Which is correct, because I did forget to nip them out last year, and I got blackfly, thankfully not too bad, and I got rid of them, I then nipped the beans, and I didn't get any more of the peskies.

[barbarella]

Did you know you could eat the pea tops?  I didn't until I read last weeks Mail on Saturday magazine and saw them in a recipe.  According to the magazine 'Most supermarkets now sell bags of prepared pea tops'. I've not seen them, but I will check when I go to Waitrose.  I've got a feeling I've seen one of the TV chefs do the same with broad bean tops - okay as long as you catch them before the blackfly  .

I'm growing peas for the first time as the mice got my seeds last year when I sowed them direct.  This time I'm starting them off successionally in lengths of guttering a la Carol Klein and they are doing okay. I was wondering whether to pinch them off when they three pairs of leaves, like sweet peas but reading this thread I think I will let them get to the top of the pea sticks. 

[DD.]

Do not be cruel to peas!