Pea support

[Flutterby]

Some of my peas are probably at the stage of needing support now and I just wondered if anyone could recommend a good (cheap) way of providing them with the correct support.

I believe the two varieties I have will grow to about 4ft and 15 inches respectively.

Thanks in advance

[nick the grief]

have you got any prunings from shrubs. If not, why not thats the cheapest way or you can put some stout canes in both sides of the row and some string around them.

[rustylady]

If no prunings available, you can use netting fixed to bamboos or stakes.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Have noticed on our site that there a piles of wooden type stakes - apologies for the rubbish description! that people have trimmed down from their raspberries (?) etc and others are now going to use to support their peas and beans...what a good idea! Bernie aka Dexterdog

[shirlthegirl43]

I am lopping back a load of very overgrown privet - will this do for pea supports or would it need to be more 'twiggy'?

[Geordie]

This method will make a frame about four and a half feet high, just under four feet long and a foot and a half wide. I'd use a frame of this size to grow three cordon-type tomato plants. Or a row of peas, if you add a few spiky twigs for them to climb up.


You will need:
Set of three 5ft bamboo hoops (available from garden centres)
Five 4ft bamboo canes (you can use more if you want extra bars on your frame)
Rubber bands
String

Put five rubber bands on each hoop, one at the top and two on either leg, at a roughly equal height (you can adjust them later). They should be tight enough to grip the poles but still manoeuvreable.

After preparing the soil, lay two of the bamboo canes out on the ground as measuring rods, then position the hoops along their length with equal spacing. The outer hoops should be an inch or so inside the straight poles.

Hook a pole through the lower rubber band on the central hoop, and then hook either end of it into the bands on the outer hoops. Do this for all five poles. You will then have a nice sturdy structure. Try to make sure the poles sit on top of the rubber band, so that it acts as a support underneath.

Tie some string tightly around each rubber band joint to give the poles extra support. Why do you need to do this when the rubber bands are already holding it pretty securely? Well, try leaving the rubber bands out in the sunshine for a few weeks and you'll see what happens.

And here's the finished article

[goddess]

Hi geordie,thanks for the photos.iam going to make your frame for my sweet peas.it looks very professional.g

[puravida]

just came accross this post whilst searching for some ideas to support beans and peas.

this frame looks great - do you plant on the inside of the outside of it though?? and if you plant on the outside, can you grow a row of lettuce or similar on the inside???

Thanks!!!!

Jonny

[tinyvine]

Hello
I say yes. I have mine going up the outside and was going to grow some short term rocket or something in the middle, anything that doesn't take too long to grow etc should be absolutely fine. Lettuces sound like a good idea, so I'll probably stick some of them in too. Some of my canes are quite far apart so I was going to try some celery in between, don't know how well it will work but hey its worth a try and plus I'm out of space everywhere else!

[JennieAtkinson]

I've never seen bamboo hoops at our garden centre unfortunately. Anyone know where I might get them online?

[Fred Perry]

Surround the plants with 3ft stakes, 4ft with 1ft in ground. then string them at 4" ish gaps in string hight. String all round then accross, if the peas fall over whilst growing they will crawl up each other with centre sting as support.
Easy and cheap and it works.
All the best
Fred P

[Two_Sheds]

If you don't have bamboo hoops, you could just cut some old hosepipe to fit over the tops of two canes to create the hoop?

[Mrs Dobby]

We built pea supports from bamboo and netting, as per the attached piccies! Quite cheap to do if you can get the netting cheaply, we bought ours in the January sale, £1 a pack, and then you just use the bamboo canes to support the net! The first piccie shows the inverted pea supports, the idea being that the pods hang to the outside, and the second shows the normal cane supports! Hope its of some help!