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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 24, 2014 10:19:23 GMT -5
I'm still using a wire netting bean trellis (2" x 4") that was first installed 32 years ago. Mechanical damage (out of control rototiller) is more of a risk to the netting than rust. Just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I hate running the tiller through a wire fence.
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Post by steev on Feb 24, 2014 11:18:30 GMT -5
If you chop it fine enough, it can add valuable trace elements to the soil.
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Post by richardw on Feb 24, 2014 13:14:20 GMT -5
Even when it does go rusty you can still get another 50 years out of it.
I like using bamboo as well, so that way at the end of the growing season the whole lot can be chucked in the compost
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Post by flowerweaver on Feb 24, 2014 16:29:36 GMT -5
I kind of figured it would be PITA, but I am infinitely patient. We'll see how much it hurts at end of season. It's not like I'm short on chickenwire. I just thought metal might heat up too much for the beans. For the desert, we seem to have plenty of rust.
We still use two bean towers I built of wood over a decade ago that get strung with twine like cosmic harps each year. And, you're right, I can just compost everything. I might build more of them once I see how well this megabean experiment goes.
Definitely in the middle of nowhere. Ghost town of 41 people, 4.4 people per square mile in the county, 1.5 hours from Home Depot, too. No cell service (doesn't bother me), a 12K helicopter ride to the hospital (as my neighbor has found necessary twice).
How do I post a photo on this forum?
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Post by zeedman on Feb 24, 2014 16:52:51 GMT -5
To post a photo, it must first be uploaded to a hosting site (like photobucket), after which you can link to it.
For trellising peas, I've either used string between posts (most often) or steel fencing. I was apprehensive about using steel wire for trellising when I lived in SoCal, but mounted vertically, it never really got hot. I was always fairly close to the coast, though, it seldom got oppressively hot there. Something I like about chicken wire is that it is easy to clean after the peas are done... let the vines dry, roll the chicken wire up vines & all, and burn it.
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Post by templeton on Feb 24, 2014 22:05:28 GMT -5
My little home garden setup is 100mm X 100 mm wire mesh roll 1800 mm wide (4 inch X 4 inch X 6 foot) stretched between metal fence posts. 4 X 4 lets me put my hand through. I use this for beans, Cukes, Tomatoes, peas, summer squash. hang it a bit above the ground, don't fix it too low so I can turn the soil between crops without removing the trellis and poles. Have done a really nice arty pea trellis of woven bamboo stems pushed in at 45 dgrees, then roughly woven together. Keep the twiggy branches on for added support. Don't think either of these solutions would work outside a small backyard garden - too fiddly. Tim, I might have some Aust field pea varieties you could try if you're interested. Pretty sure they are non-gm, developed in south australia - semileafless for self supporting broadscale growing. Not sure about suitability for soup. www.awb.com.au/growers/awbseeds/productprofile/VarietySummaryKaspa.htmwww.sardi.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/45998/mukta.pdfT |
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Post by steev on Feb 24, 2014 23:15:11 GMT -5
Well, if they dry round, they're for soup; if wrinkly, you should've eaten them fresh; same deal as corn.
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Post by blueadzuki on Feb 24, 2014 23:59:02 GMT -5
If only it were that simple. A lot of the older soup pea strains have really thick seed coats (especially the colored coated ones). So it's more like "If it's round they're for soup" If it's wrinkly you probably shouldn't have planted that one in the first place, and it's going to be pretty poor no matter WHAT you do with it.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 25, 2014 7:24:09 GMT -5
templeton , they sound interesting. I don't have anything with the semi-leafless trait.
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Post by philagardener on Feb 25, 2014 21:05:55 GMT -5
"Mukta is a semi-leafless, semi-dwarf pea with poor early vigour . . " Hmmm . . . anyone read these adverts? :>) |
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Post by steev on Feb 25, 2014 21:51:59 GMT -5
That's a tad disturbing.
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Post by zeedman on Feb 25, 2014 22:09:16 GMT -5
"Mukta is a semi-leafless, semi-dwarf pea with poor early vigour . . " Hmmm . . . anyone read these adverts? :>) May???  |
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Post by steev on Feb 25, 2014 22:30:29 GMT -5
Eat at your own risk.
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Post by templeton on Feb 26, 2014 0:09:59 GMT -5
"Mukta is a semi-leafless, semi-dwarf pea with poor early vigour . . " Hmmm . . . anyone read these adverts? :>) May??? These are commercial varieties for broad scale farming. The poor emergence and poor early vigor is something I've also experienced with some heirloom varieties - it just means you need to sow more heavily. Presumably the trade off is the high resistance to foliage disease, or other desirable characteristics. It probably reflects growth in average field conditions when sown in S.E. australia during the the season when they normally grow field peas in their crop rotation. I think the poor emergence is probably susceptibility to soil organisms. My guess is the breeders opted to choose a range of phenotypes to go on with, that exhibited a range of desirable characteristics, rather than extend the development time searching for a 'holy grail' field pea that was outstanding at everything. I've got a few other standard field varieties that I'm yet to trial - this is incentive to get them and see how they do. My reading of the 'may be suitable for human consumption' is that it reflects the common end use and marketing of peas rather than actual unsuitability for consumption. Not much dry pea gets eaten in Australia. Most of the peas go into animal feed. Some gets exported to countries that consume pulses - mostly India and the middle east. I guess they hadn't done a huge amount of market research, and weren't sure of the desirability of this particular pea in 'exotic' food markets. I've crossed it into some of my snow pea development lines,(looking for semi-leaflessness, and powdery mildew resistance) so if you read of a dead Templeton in a few years time, or I start making choking noises, beware! The semi-leafless snow pea I subsequently managed to get hold of wasn't a great performer for me, so maybe there's some gene linkage around early vigour. I've just done a bit of search re GM organisms in Australia. There have been 128 applications for intentional release of transgenic organisms in Australia, most of them withdrawn or now ceased. Currently cotton, pineapple, canola, sugarcane a nd a few others are being grown or researched. the full list is here <http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/Content/ir-1> Pisum has never featured in these lists. However, CSIRO did research into GM field peas (presumably in containment, since they never applied for field testing), and withdrew it after adverse reactions in mice in 2005. An interesting report about how it was 'destroyed' yet miraculously re-emerged in the European Union, here www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/14968-the-curious-case-of-csiro-s-gm-field-peasT |
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 26, 2014 2:12:22 GMT -5
Templeton, you're scaring me. I think GMO is the boogie man! Oxbow, iffen I get any peas this year, (I did plant them). I will send you some next season. Solstice Seed has:
Pea Soup - Amplissimo Viktoria Ukrainskaya.
I received a lot of lovely peas for the pea trial, but last year we got 90 degree weather in March, making for a zero pea season and this year we've had little rain.
So, not sure how the peas will do.
I use wire (concrete reinforcement mesh) 4x4 holes, 6 feet long, about 4 1/2 feet tall. I can replant shorter bean varieties in the same season with the same set-up. I can also zip tie them into cylinders and use them to cage tomatoes. If I didn't cage tomatoes, I wouldn't get any! Once the vines start tangling, I can't tell one bean or pea from another, so I gotta trellis.
Oxbow, since you already can make laundry baskets from your willow, why not some trellis?
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