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Post by littleminnie on Feb 13, 2012 19:12:06 GMT -5
I haven't tried to grow snow peas in years. They were always curly and tough for me from the heat of summer but I decided to try again. I ordered Mammoth Melting. Anyone have anything to say?
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Post by DarJones on Feb 13, 2012 19:36:35 GMT -5
Plant them between 4 and 8 weeks before your last frost. Given MN, you would probably plant sometime about the first of April
DarJones
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Post by ferdzy on Feb 13, 2012 22:44:11 GMT -5
The trouble with "4 to 8 weeks before last frost" is there have been times when I've had a foot of snow on the ground then... and I'm talking 4 weeks before last frost; well, okay, five.
I've grown Mammoth Melting a couple of times and really like it. It gets HUGE though. The peas are good up to about 25°C; actually I'd say below 23°C is definitely better. After that, you will need to pick them smaller and smaller or they will be tough. Of course, a small Mammoth Melting is about the size of any other regular snow pea.
I wrote about them in more detail on my blog; would you like a link?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 13, 2012 22:53:56 GMT -5
Snow melt for me is about 9 weeks before last average frost. So I plant my first crop of peas a few days after the winter snow-cover melts, whenever that happens to be. The garden will be snowed on a few more times after that, but the peas don't seem to care.
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Post by darwinslair on Feb 14, 2012 0:11:17 GMT -5
I find best results are to give them a head start with a plastic row cover to get them sprouted a week or so earlier than they ordinarily would. trap some heat and get them going. I soak them before I put them in the ground too. Anything to advantage them.
Tom
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Post by steev on Feb 14, 2012 1:15:07 GMT -5
I don't deal with snow much at all, but if there were only a couple inches, what if one scraped it off a row, planted peas, dusted on powdered charcoal, and repeated the charcoal dust any time it snowed a bit. Wouldn't the charcoal harness solar heat to warm the ground for the peas or to melt light snow?
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Post by Walk on Feb 14, 2012 10:22:42 GMT -5
We've had the best luck with Oregon Giant here in SE MN. We've grown them since 1992, generally planting the 1st or 2nd week of April, sometimes pre-soaking the seed before planting. Harvest is usually 2nd week of June thru mid July, but we often get another flush of peas well into August, depending on the weather.
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Post by littleminnie on Feb 14, 2012 11:24:34 GMT -5
LOL we don't even have snow! But yes it really depends on the year. Last year the snow lingered and early planting was impossible. This year I could be seeding right now (j/k) if the field had been disced and ready like I wanted in fall.
I always soak my seeds but with the earthway seeder it makes it difficult. I have soaked them for a day, allowed to reharden and tried to plant, and they zing out all crazy out of the hopper in all directions.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 14, 2012 12:43:34 GMT -5
Minnie, Peas are up! I have found that if you soak them, you have to plant them by hand. If you plant them dry in the EW and then irrigate, well that's another thing. I soaked these overnight in endo and kelp and plunked them in by hand. The weather has been so mild, I'm not taking a chance that I won't get any peas, so in they went. Note the anti-gopher baskets. This is the first planting, the first go was Caroby and Sugaree. Today I'll put in Taichung 11 & Southland Snow. In another 15 days, I'll get the Arbogast Sugar the Taichung 13 followed by all the soup peas. After March 15, I can't plant peas, they'll just keel over. Some years I get peas by the bucket and others, they just keel over. All depends if we get one of these early spring heatwaves. Either that or the farmer here is quacko! Attachments:
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Post by raymondo on Feb 14, 2012 14:58:58 GMT -5
Holly, deep do the gopher baskets go? Must be a damn nuisance having to put them in!
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 14, 2012 15:58:12 GMT -5
Raymundo, the baskets are about 7 inches tall. They area nuisance to make, bury and dig up. However, they do result in no loss. See the broc/cabbage/cauli picture. These are in the field right now. Every day the gophers take 4 to 6 of these. I planted 120 plants, you can see how few are left. As these are for me, I didn't cage them, but I cage everything that I hope to get in the main season. Nothing worse that 110day squash, eaten on day 75! Thankfully, they don't eat corn. But there's very few darn other things they don't eat. I have to cage trees, bushes, you name it. Phooey on voles. Attachments:
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Post by littleminnie on Feb 14, 2012 16:15:07 GMT -5
I am also doing some things to try to keep the peas from the gophers this year. Or rather the gophers from the peas! ;D
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Post by richardw on Mar 12, 2012 2:59:20 GMT -5
Some of you folks may have the gophers to deal with but i have a big problem with sorrows that pull my peas out as soon as they show there heads,i have to use small hoops and vineyard net to cover over my garden beds to stop them.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 12, 2012 13:07:40 GMT -5
Richard, here the red-winged blackbirds that are "supposed" to be a Ferdzy's shivering, are basking in the sunshine on the trellis and swooping down to pull out sweet peas.... Every year they eat ever darn edamame I plant. So this year I got "funny" with them. I planted the sweet peas, and a row over I planted the edamame. They are so busy with the soy beans, I "might" actually get flowers this year. But, I wouldn't bet the farm on it. The first planting of peas is in the basket, the second between the baskets, and the third on the other side of the trellis. This is where I had beans last summer. So after I plant peas here and they are done, this row will become cukes in June. The trellis will go, but the basket will stay. I'll cover the rest of the row with black plastic, and transplant the cucumbers directly in this row, without tilling and without doing anything but stirring in some amendments into the baskets. I figure that a season of peas/beans=a one year bean rotation. I didn't plant the ends of the rows as I'm waiting to see if any of the runner beans will come back from roots. Attachments:
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Post by richardw on Mar 12, 2012 14:28:46 GMT -5
Gardens looking good holly.
I do a peas/beans rotation each of year as well, seems to work OK
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