[Elaine G]

My 'normal' peas are fine, but I have sown 6ft rows of alderman peas twice now and only have 8 plants!
Wish I had never bothered to put up the canes and netting

Elaine

[JayG]

Despite being in the presence of pea greatness on this site (DD) I have given up growing normal podded peas but strangely enough have had success with mangetout in the past and this year the sugarsnaps are going great guns so far! 

[Christine]

I never plant peas direct into soil any more due to creatures eating them. I've followed the trend up here to start them off in seed trays and then plant out. Mine have been slow when planted out this year - they survived the late frost and are just beginning to pick up. Have Oasis (not again I think) and Jaguar left from last year. It won't be as good a crop as last year - Twinkle was great.

Will be using Kings Seeds next year as a change from T&M just to compare.

[DD.]

This year's circumastances are different, but my usual method is:

Make your 6" wide drill.

Throw the peas in quite thickly to allow for losses.

Net and peg down well with fine netting. (Debris). This keeps the birds & mice out.

Once germinated, start staking and keep netted against birds. This netting need not be so fine.

If you can, source loose peas. These cost a fraction of those in packets of a paltry 300 and you can afford to sow thicker to allow for losses.

Transplanting is not an option at DD. towers.

[PennyS]

I sowed Waverex direct mid-March in a deeper trench than normal (anti-mice/bad weather?) - I put in lots of extras expecting to lose lots, but they seem to have come up really thickly and are now putting on their first flowers.

I did a second sowing mid-April and this sowing didn't seem to come up as well - quite patchy.  I don't think I planted them quite as deep.

My mangetout are doing well, sowed later than the second Waverex, and making much better progress.

I've no idea whether it was the timing or the depth of sowing or just luck that caused the difference for my sowings.

A few weeks back I sowed some Early Onward given by a neighbour.  They were slow to come through but look like they have come through reasonably evenly.  We'll see how they do.

I have only ever grown mangetout before (always successfully) so I don't konw what I'm doing with peas.  I thought they'd be easy but it looks not  :blink:

[iggyboy]

I swear by Hurst Greenshaft! I plant a single pea per peatpot and out of 50 I got 48 plants!! Cant be complaining about that. 

[PennyS]

Out of interest, DD what's you favourite heritage pea?
I am going to be more imaginative with varieties next year!!

[Mike.white]

Hmm... kelvedon wonder problems here too - one lot from more veg - sewed 100, got 2 plants - another lot from T&M - sewed another 100 and got 3.... can't do without peas so had to resort to buying a few plants from the garden centre - time for a change of type, methinks (well, next year, anyway!)

[DD.]

Out of interest, DD what's you favourite heritage pea?
I am going to be more imaginative with varieties next year!!

My "stock" one is one called "Stokesley". Not commerically available. I've now now 1,000's, but you can only get them from the Heritage Seed Library about 6 at a time!

I do have two more "Parsley" and "Champion of England" (a climber), also 6 more varieties obtained from the HSL this year, which I have yet to cultivate.

[diggerjoe]

Picked first batch golden mangetout at weekend but they were very slow and very poor looking plants at first.  Only direct sown one batch this year ambasador they are now about foot high. The 'telephone' variety that was supposed to grow tall ( at least 5ft) has decided to flower at 3ft  but after a weak start are looking ok. I 've tried purple podded peas this year but they have only just been plated out as they took ages to germinate and  the parsley pea only 4 out out of 20 have germinated. One more lot to go in direct Yuthanza or something like that cant remember what type they are. Will have to check packet.  

[PennyS]

Out of interest, DD what's you favourite heritage pea?
I am going to be more imaginative with varieties next year!!

My "stock" one is one called "Stokesley". Not commerically available. I've now now 1,000's, but you can only get them from the Heritage Seed Library about 6 at a time!

Wow, you have put a huge effort in to accumulate those, I'm impressed!

[DD.]

It's not actually that bad, if you do the math. The hardest thing is to resist eating any for a couple of years!

I took on "Stokesley" as a Seed Guardian and carefull logged everything for the HSL, so I know they returned 60 fold, whereas other were only about 40.

Assuming perfect germination:

Year 0 = 6 seed
Year 1 = 360 seed
Year 2 = 21,600 seed

I know we're not going to get perfect germination, some will errr... "disappear", some will get passed on, but it's easy to see how quickly you can build up your own seed stock.

[hightide]

I sowed two varieties direct, Meteor and Hurst Green Shaft from T&M when there was a warm spell in April, laid them out two inches apart in a six inch row and pushed them down to the second forefinger digit, watered and left them to it. The Meteor is flowering and the first pods are swelling nicely in all this rain; the HGS is well up at about two foot and looking good. Looking at them tonight I made a mental note not to bother with the guttering method next year!
    

[Cazzy]

Count me in.

Direct sowed a full pack of T&M Kelvedon Wonder and only got 6.

I'm gonna have to go buy some more from B&Q, the supermarket seed sections don't have any peas except tesco's kid's range, nearly £2 I think it was for about 10 peas, they should have the decency to wear masks when they take your money for them.

[SUTTY1]

Sorry to buck the trend!!!! Planted 100'ish sugarsnap under glass and only got 6 to shoot.

Direct sowed old/stale (2008 use by date)kw and well over half took and now in flower and looking good.

All the hassle/learning is definately part off the joy off growing your own