Overwintering Mangetout

[Andraste]

Your good wishes were enough to get my mangetout and broadies through the winter. They were actually looking pretty good although they had clearly had a bit of a frosting at times it surprisingly seemed to impact the broadies worse than the mangetouts. I almost completely neglected them (they got watered once, maybe twice), they pulled through

Then just over a week ago (I couldn't bring myself to even look - had to send the OH instead), the blinking blowaway fell on its face All destroyed (along with my Feb sown red onions) as they all fell 'butter-side down'. I guess at least now they're all in the compost bin I can console myself that it didn't matter after all that I was too lazy to pot them on

[nick the grief]

Douce Provence are a short sweet pea, so nothing like mangetout and not what you're looking for I guess, but you can easily overwinter these. They make for a nice crop in very early spring even if they're not hugely productive because they're so short. Better than nothing, for sure. I've grown them in the past and they've survived minus 10 ºC, very cold winds and even heavy snowfall (though in that case I covered them over with plastic in advance and gave the plastic extra support - just as well as we had 80 cm of snow).

I haven't done this the last few years. No idea why. Will do it again this winter. Thanks for reminding me, Andraste.

THey're cracking peas Snoop what I do (and it might be of help with your Blowaway house Andraste ) is sow them in september/october in the greenhouse in hanging baskets (you can use the ones you had for summer just take the plants out and refresh the compost with a bit of Blood, fish and bone and then sow 1 pea per inch of basket so a 12" basket = 12 peas etc. they will give you an early crop of peas, safe from mice (unless your mice are mountaineers) and are easy to pick as they hang down. you can sow these uptil about june and get a crop of small peas that are just like eating sweeties

Carouby is a beutiful pea but i don't think they would be worth over wintering but you can sow them in spring under cover and that will give you an early crop.

If you are looking for good flowers with your edible peas then another one to try is Rosakrone (Real seeds sell it) its a swedish pea that has Salmon and white flowers


or another mange tout from them Golden sweet - again with purple flowers but golden yellow pod

Lots of choice out there

[Andraste]

Thanks for the tips nick the grief I particularly like the hanging basket idea - very clever I got around to sowing some replacement Carouby on Monday but not as many as I want so will be doing some more. I'll likely wait a fortnight to see which sowings do best for us.

Did you get around to trying overwintering again Snoop Puss ? If you did I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether it was worth the bother.

[Snoop Puss]

Did you get around to trying overwintering again Snoop Puss ? If you did I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether it was worth the bother.

I didn't, Andraste. Life has been complicated recently and lots of things have been put on hold. But would they have been worth it if I had? Yes. Even though they're supposedly so short they need no support, they really do need it here, as we have periods of strong winds. The biggest effort would have been putting in the support, thereafter they need no input at all.

[Andraste]

Sorry to hear that Snoop Puss - I hope things become less complicated for you soon *hugs*

I think I'll have another go this year as if it hadn't been for the collapse of the blowaway I would have had some decent size plants ready to go as soon as the ground/weather was ready. With so many seeds needing sowing around this time I'd have been glad not to need to find space for a spring sowing of these too.