Kapuler peas

[Rebsie]

I grew some of Alan Kapuler's edible-podded peas this year, so here are a few notes on how they did.

My grateful thanks to Mybighair (Graham) who sent me all these seeds.



Opal Creek

A golden yellow snap pea. I believe this is the variety with the working name of 'Golden Snap' whose creation is described on pp.130-5 of Carol Deppe's book. If so, it's a cross between Golden Sweet and Sugar Snap.

The pale wrinkled bullet-shaped seeds grow into long thin elegant plants. Mine reached a height of 6 or 7 feet, but they tended to stay tall and thin and didn't fill out with foliage very much. The flowers were white and once the plants reached flowering age the stems, leaf veins and plant tops took on a distinctive yellow tint. Some flowers were borne singly, some in pairs.

The pods start off bright intense yellow and blur into a more subtle pale yellow as they mature. The flesh is translucent with a lovely silky surface which feels nice to the touch. They are quite narrow and slender pods, and they stick outwards slightly rather than growing downwards. Yields are not bad ... it produced a generous number of pods but they are a little smaller than most snap pods.

Flavour is very nice, fairly sweet and pleasantly crunchy.

It's a beauty to have in the garden. I grew it right next to the fence because my neighbour is freaked out by vegetables that don't look the same as the ones in the supermarket. It could just as easily have gone into a flower border, it looks so good.

[Rebsie]

Spring Blush

One of several purple or purple-blushed snap peas bred by Alan Kapuler. As far as I know this one is from the same cross as the purple snap Sugar Magnolia (which I'll be trialling next year). This one however has green pods, with rosy mottling.

A tall pea, climbing to 6 feet or so. And when I say climbing I ain't kidding. This thing has what Dr Kapuler describes as "hypertendrils", which are capable of gripping practically anything (and tying half a dozen knots in the process).

If you're wondering what hypertendrils look like (I certainly was), they kind of go like this:



These tendrils are amazing things and make themselves apparent at the seedling stage. Even when only a few days old the seedlings have little tufty tops like alien heads. When mature the tendrils are green with a rosy blush and a deep pink spot at the base of each tendril. Very pretty.

The leaves have a strong red-pink blotch in the axil which spreads outwards into the leaf. Also some reddish colour in the stems. Flowers are bicolour purple-maroon.

Pods varied in how much of a blush they had. The one below was the darkest I had, while some were almost entirely green. They are fairly large and plump pods with a shiny surface. Most importantly though, the flavour is outstanding. Really really sweet and yummy. Probably the best snap pea I've tasted. Yields were quite good too.

A lovely pea and worth seeking out.

[Rebsie]

Magnolia Blossom

Another hypertendrilled snap pea from the same cross as Spring Blush. It's very like Spring Blush in height and appearance, and the pods are green with a dark pink suture and occasionally a slight blush.

It's very nice but I thought Spring Blush had the edge for flavour.

[bunkie]

beaautiful pics and descriptions rebsie!

[biorag]

Wow !
Thank you Rebsie for these pics and comments.

It gives me some ideas for the next spring.

[canadamike]

biorag, if I lived in France, I would order ROI DES CONSERVES climbing petits pois from 123 seeds. They are amazingly productive and goooooood.

I would have sent you lots, but I lost most ofmy seeds in the move to the new house...

[biorag]

Michel, I just grow snap peas and sugar peas.
-Géant suisse (purple flowers) : sugar peas
-delikata : sugar peas which can be shelled lately.
-sugar bon : snap peas. i lost it !

I want to try more varieties next year : spring blush seems to be very interesting.

[johno]

Those peas are beautiful and very interesting - thanks for posting about them, Rebsie!

I had been thinking about crossing Sugar Snap with Golden Sweet; now I know how it might turn out. Sounds like one more dip with Sugar Snap, then selecting for yellow pods again, might do the trick for production. They are my favorite two edible podded peas, but Golden Sweet is not a great producer, whereas Sugar Snap really is.

[Rebsie]

Biorag - I have a small amount of Spring Blush seed to give away this year, so I can put some aside for you if you want to try it.

Johno - yes, I think that would probably work. Yellow pods and snap-type pods are both recessive, so once you get them both together it's easy and you can select for whatever else you want.

I've been working on a yellow snap pea myself the last couple of years, from a cross between Golden Sweet and Sugar Ann. The results have been a delight and I have several lines worth following up (not all of them snaps!) I've put my data for this year into a table, if anyone wants to have a look at how a cross like this segregates out: www.daughterofthesoil.com/yssdata.html

The one unexpected problem I've had with this cross is that many - most - of the snap pod phenotypes in the F2 have an inedible fibre layer! It's very frustrating as neither of the parents had this trait. It may not happen in a cross with Sugar Snap, but if it does then a backcross or two ought to take care of it.

[houseodessey]

Those are indeed beautiful photos. And gorgeous pea plants. I've never had a pea that bloomed anything but white flowers. The spring blush is truly amazing looking. I've always thought okra flowers were the prettiest in the veg world. I have now changed my mind.

[biorag]

Dec 4, 2008 16:16:09 GMT -5 Rebsie said:

Biorag - I have a small amount of Spring Blush seed to give away this year, so I can put some aside for you if you want to try it.

With a great pleasure, Rebsie !
It is very kind from your part.

My list of seeds for exchange is not still ready. I'll prepare it.

[americangardener]

Rebsie.. i'm still admiring all those beautifull pictures you posted. Looks like alot of work growing out your crosses. What's that some 62 different types from one F2? Wow that's gonna be alot of work when i finally get around to doing some crossing.

I'm thinking i'm gonna do a couple crosses like you and Johno.. to try and make some new yellow podded ones with some better genetics.. and then a couple purple podded ones and try to get some edible podded purples.. and then maybe a few yellow purple crosses this year. Then next year cross my yellow and purple F1's and see what happens.

From your tables there.. i can see already i won't be able to keep up with all the record keeping if i do more than a few crosses. Hopefully it'll work out where i can get lucky and get a red pod one from the F1's.

But, now you got me addicted to this idea of making a red podded one.

Dave

[canadamike]

Rebsie, I would love to work with you on these yellow snaps should you need help. Should you not, I'd love to have some seeds anyway... ;D

Thanks!

P.S. Did I forget to tell you you are incredible, wonderful, magical, beautiful, exquisite, intelligent, articulate, adorable, sensitive, talented, a signing marvel, extraordinary, funny, gracious, generous and a fantastic pea giver?

[Rebsie]

Dave - don't be put off by my ridiculously huge data table. I just decided to be all scientific this year and collect masses of data about each individual F2 plant in case it was useful. What I found though was that it was so immensely time-consuming I ended up doing it for only one project (and collected no data at all on my other projects). And much of the information I so painstakingly collected was actually pretty irrelevant and pointless. So next year I'm going to whittle it down into a much smaller table, and only collect data for the traits that matter.

You don't actually need to do any of this stuff, you can just make the crosses and select the ones you like. Or just make a few notes based on general observations.

I am a pea-genetics nerd and I like to make things difficult for myself.

Mike - well, how can I say no to such charming flattery? I have a very small handful of F2 seeds left which I'd like to grow out next year, so I'll split them with you. The yellow sugarsnap phenotype should show up in about one in sixteen plants, some of which will have an inedible fibre layer but there should be a few other nice phenotypes in there too.

[americangardener]

Ah.. i'm not put off bout taking notes.

That's all dependant on the weather as far as i'm concerned. If it's a hot dry year like the in the past three years prior to this one.. then i'm out in the garden all day long anyways. I take a break every once in a while and just go around with my notebook and write down notes. Then if it's raining every day like this past season.. well the notes have to suffer cause i just don't have the time to take care of the plants and the notes too. We'll see how it goes next year. Now i got a camera.. and it's just much easier to take pictures real quick and then do my notes once i get back to the house while it's still fresh in my mind and i have the pics to refresh my memory. I'll find something that works for me next season. Besides it wouldn't be till the F2's where it'll be a ton of notes like yours. The first season should be easy just writing down the parents characteristics. And then i've only got two yellow podded varieties so far, so they'll be used for multiple crosses with different purple podded ones. Might do some with green podded ones too for traits like multiple podding and even those tendrils like in your pic above. I got some green ones with both those characteristics i might want to use in crossing with both the yellow and purples.

I know the feeling of being a nerd when it comes to pea genetics now.. I've been spending way too much time researching sites like www.jic.ac.uk/germplas/pisum/zgs4f.htm and so many others that i keep finding bout peas. Been reading alot of articles like this one too: narod.yandex.ru/cgi-bin/yandmarkup?cluster=18&prog=0x2757571A&HndlQuery=1065992464&PageNum=0&g=9&d=0&q0=1385146400&p=

I actually emailed Mike at the pea genetics center yesterday to see about using some of their accessions next season. They do have quite a few varieties of both yellow and purple podded ones. I think i went thru their list of nearly 4000 varieties the other day and found 90 some with either the Pur Pu or gp genes. Found quite a few new names i can keep an eye out for too if i can run across anyone who has em. So even if i can't get any accessions from the John Innes collection it was still usefull research. data.jic.bbsrc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pgene/default.asp

Anyways.. it ought to be fun growing these colorfull peas out next year. Maybe i'll stumble across something.. maybe i won't.. but it's all interesting stuff.

Dave