Peas going abysmal

[Marb67]

I assumed that both lots of peas were in pots - and you haven't mentioned what medium they were planted in until now.
So add me to the "wires crossed" list too

Fair enough. My apologies.

[Yasai]

Just out of interest, what plants have you been successful with this year?

[Penellype]

I do fear it might be a bad year for peas and mangetout for that fact. Anyone feel free to correct me, but none of mine are their usual selves and I have some new ones that aren't doing what they should. The first few planted out I thought it was due to birds taking the tips out. However, I have 3 climbing varieties that have all stopped at around 2-3 ft and others just being a bit hit and miss

My peas have gone completely berserk, so much so that even the normally dwarf Meteor reached about 5ft and Hurst Greenshaft ("height 30in") was over 6ft tall when it fell over because it had outgrown the supports. I've had loads of peas from them both, and the Onward are doing similarly well, nearly ready to harvest. These are all grown in the soil - I'm trying the late variety Geisha in a 30 litre bucket, but too early to say how it will fare.

Difficult to say what the issue is really. When I sow peas I totally disregard the instructions on the packet re. spacing, and sow 5 seeds to a 3.5 inch pot indoors. Usually 4 or 5 germinate (although they don't if you plant them too deep) and I then harden them off and plant out when about 6 inches high. I don't leave any spaces between the contents of the pot at all, just filling in any small gaps with soil to complete the row. This gives me a thick row of peas:



(This was June, before the plants fell over).

The Geisha currently look like this:



That's 10 pots (50 seeds) planted in a circle round the outside of the 30 litre bucket, supported with buddleia prunings. Geisha is a semi-leafless variety that grows about 18" high.

[Chippy Minton]

I sowed 2 rows of peas (and twice) I got 3 plants and I assume a lot of healthy squirrels. Peas can be eaten, rot off, etc. Not been a good year for peas for me, they've been replaced with French Beans instead (which are doing wonderfully )

[Jungle Jane]

I had a good result with bingo peas this year,better than kelvedon wonder last year (those got powdery mildew,bingo didn't). Picked them,picked them again & again,if you don't pick them,the plant slows down growth a lot. So it's good to have about 20 plants growing at one time,then you can pick the couple of pods from each plant to make a meal & also at that point,the plants will carry on growing & producing more flowers/pods.

[Scarlet]

Just wondering if you use a feed Marb and if so, what do you use?
I'll be honest I only grow meteor peas early on in the year so I've not got much advice to offer. Though like some of the others have said, you need to have a lot of plants on the go to make a meal.

[Potstubsdustbins]

My first setting of the ever reliable Kelveton Wonder didn't do very well at all this year, both containers 90 plants were stunted.

I ripped out one container and replanted in fresh compost leaving the other as a control. The second planting romped away and are now producing a good harvest, the first looked pretty much like the OP's and gave little harvest. Mid June I had those out, replanted again in fresh compost and that lot are now about a foot high so good hopes there to.

The more I thought about it the more I realised it was my fault, checking records revealed I had not changed the compost for 5 years and had grown peas there every year.

[Potstubsdustbins]

One more point I always assume that new compost has been sterilised and therefore the nitrogen fixing bacteria are missing, I therefore feed my peas with a high nitrogen feed.

This may be baloney but it usually works for me.

[bearded bloke]

I think you will find I uploaded 2 x images of both plantings of peas, some in the pot (with new compost) and some in the soil so not sure why you got your wires crossed. Anyway, no horse manure at all for either (which was all removed anyway).

In that case why did you not make it clear in the text in the post at the time that the pictures were of plants in different mediums ?

[kasni]

For me, I just think that some things are just not destined to grow in my garden.

Part of the attraction to gardening that!

Finding out what will and won't grow is always fun! The successes always outway the failures.

[BUFFS]

I do fear it might be a bad year for peas and mangetout for that fact. Anyone feel free to correct me, but none of mine are their usual selves and I have some new ones that aren't doing what they should. The first few planted out I thought it was due to birds taking the tips out. However, I have 3 climbing varieties that have all stopped at around 2-3 ft and others just being a bit hit and miss

so I am not the only one with non performing peas, and I sowed 3 lots but with the odd weather(really cold) spells , right into july so not really surprised......

[Marb67]

In that case why did you not make it clear in the text in the post at the time that the pictures were of plants in different mediums ?

I did apologize a few posts back.

[bearded bloke]

I did apologize a few posts back.

So you did

[Marb67]

Well here they are some time on and not any bigger, no flowers. Pathetic

[Potstubsdustbins]

Difficult to see from that angle but how deep is your compost, over the years I have found the least depth I can get away with is 8 to 9 inches.