Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Peas are in

Here are all the peas before transplant. They were sown March 25th in rootrainers, they were germinated indoors and then placed out in the polytunnel shortly after germination. In the tunnel they have grown to approx. 6-8 inches tall and have developed a nice root system that you will see below.

The rootrainers offer a good soil volume and direct root growth inwards. I must say I am rather pleased with the rootrainers so far. Next up I will sow all the beans in these containers and will see how they do.

Above are all the areas I am growing peas in this season. Just as before the beds were turned, amended with compost & kelp meal and then planted. This year I am using a combination of sticks & trellis netting to grow the peas up. Below I will go into detail about each pea variety:

Cascadia Sugar Snap Pea from seed shared by Laura.
I tried snap peas for the first time last year and loved
them. I am looking forward to growing a bigger crop this
year.

Victorian Climbing Pea from seed shared by Gary.
These grow 8' tall so I planted them under my
8' trellis. Later in the season I will companion plant
them with butternut squash.

Oregon Sugar Snow Pea from seed shared by Miss M.
This will be my first attempt at growing snow peas.

The last pea variety I am trying this year is
Opal Creek Golden Snap Pea. As the name
suggests they have golden pods and I've
read they are not quite as sweet as the green.

So that is 2 1/2 beds done. Tomorrow I will put in the onion bed and then the potato bed soon after that. Then a bit of a reprieve before planting out celeriac, celery, carrots, beets, parsnips tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, beans, squash, melons & cucumbers. I'm tired already... :-)

19 comments:

  1. Those root trainers look like a good thing, I might have to check on them. I'd never be able to use them with peas or beans, I plant too many of those! This moon gardening is messing up my schedule. The moon and the weather and my mood don't always cooperate.

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  2. Granny - Yeah I know! I planted radishes & chard Monday and that was a time seed tend to rot. Does it apply to transplants as well as seed?

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  3. The rootrainers really do the job ! Will be great for the beans too.

    Your grass is nice and green. Spring is back on track this week and mine is getting greener every day. (I even spotted ONE dandelion !)

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  4. I love your use of sticks as trellises. I usually just use seed flats to sow my seeds since we plant so many of them.

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  5. Dan...your peas look great...the snow peas are one of my favorite!

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  6. I like that you use sticks for support. I would love to use something like that too, but I’m growing too much peas to have them all supported by sticks.

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  7. Snow peas - in England we call them Mangetout - and THAT's not English! Oregon SP is one I grow regularly.

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  8. I am doing heirloom Amish snap peas, but didn't allocate as much space as you did for peas.

    The rootrainers work great. The only thing is that they get really expensive if you use them on a large scale.

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  9. I'm like Granny. I could never do my peas in pots (even root trainers that I've heard such good things about). I plant so many. Though if I did, I wouldn't have those bare patches in my pea bed. Could you imagine planting out about 120 pea plants. Next year I'm in trouble with onions though. I did a calculation about how many I might need to grow. Way too many. I need more lights!

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  10. Looks good. My peas are doing quite well outside, I have them in a raised bed under a floating row cover.

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  11. Wow...your peas look great!! I will have to try those rootrainers next year for some of my plants.

    Thanks for becoming my first follower! I have quite a bit left to do on my blog...once I figure out how to do what I want to do.

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  12. Your veggies look like they are well on their way now!

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  13. Dan you are way ahead of me. I still have wine to make. every thing looks great though. John

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  14. so easy to grow and prolific too. I have been through a phase of growing pretty colour peas, this year I have some old fashioned salmon flowered peas. I look forward to seeing yours.

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  15. Pea vines just scream "SPRING IS HERE!!!" :D

    It looks like the Cascadia sugar snaps are off to a good start for you. Mine zoomed out of the shoot this year too - I think it may be a great pea year this year.

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  16. Love your stick supports. I transplanted my peas about a week ago. I've never tried growing peas in containers. Hope yours are a success.

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  17. Those are great looking roots - hmmmm, I could probably use a trip to Lee Valley.

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  18. Best of luck with the Pea's. You have got a lot on the go - where do you find the time!

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