pea moth

[kate&rob]

how very disappointing! every one of my pea pods, and we had a good crop, was affected by pea moth.
has anybody any suggestions as to how to avoid this? are autumn peas less susceptible?

[Thelma Sanders]

RHS says

Quick-maturing cultivars that are sown early or late and which flower outside of the egg laying period of the moth (June and July) should remain un-infested.

But.....even my early peas get some, so those dates are not reliable.
You could grow short varieties and cover them with enviromesh.

[Penellype]

I've had problems with pea moth, most notably in 2013 when I lost almost all my Onward peas and quite a few of the earlier crop of Hurst Greenshaft. Last year I planted nasturtiums next to the peas, and didn't find a single grub. But this year I have nasturtiums growing in amongst my peas and I found one grub yesterday. The peas have nearly finished, so most of the crop has missed the onslaught. These seem to start to be a problem from about mid July (first recorded on 17/7/13 and very bad by 26/7), so earlier cropping may help. Interestingly last year's peas were finished by 16th July.

Peas are self pollinating so although insects can pollinate them they are not necessary. If you are badly affected you can cover the plants with mesh from an early stage, but make sure that you are using a piece of ground that has not grown affected peas recently as the pupae overwinter in the soil.

[TrialAndError]

Try growing climbing peas such as Alderman. They suffer far less from Pea Moth. I gave up growing dwarf peas because of the problem and now only grow climbers. It works for me

[Jungle Jane]

You could try growing peas in a couple of different areas? I had one lot of pea leaves eaten by the moth caterpillars,ruined the plants but the pods were fine. The other pea plants are 3 meters away between my runner beans & haven't been touched. Maybe there are too many predatory insects around the beans & they're looking for safe places to lay eggs,like butterflies do?

[Thelma Sanders]

Try growing climbing peas such as Alderman. They suffer far less from Pea Moth. I gave up growing dwarf peas because of the problem and now only grow climbers. It works for me

That's news to me cos Alderman is what I grow, and I said earlier........

.....even my early peas get some, so those dates are not reliable