My snow pea trial

[raymondo]

I sowed what snows I had at hand as a comparison, looking for a decent snow. By decent I mean flavourful, parchment free at least until well developed and productive. I'd also like some powdery mildew resistance. The results:

Mammoth Melting (or is it Melting Mammoth?) - climber
A reasonably good snow pea. Develops some sweetness as the peas start to swell. Appears to remain parchment free up to pea swelling stage. Haven't tried them with full-sized peas yet.

Yakumo Giant - climber
Lovely plant, but I'm afraid that's about as far as it goes. Parchment develops quite early.

Oregon Giant - bush
Not at all bad. Remains parchment free even when peas are full-sized. In fact, I agree with Carol Deppe: they are at their best when the peas are good and plump.

Oregon Sugar Pod - bush
Quite good early on but develops an unpleasant parchment layer as the peas fill out.

That's it for the spring sown snow peas. PM isn't an issue for spring sowings here so that will have to wait. If the summer isn't too hot, we can sow again then for an autumn harvest. That's when PM will rear its ugly head.

Of the above, I would only bother with MM and OG again. In fact, I'm wondering what a cross between the two might produce?

Oh, productivity ... it was a hot, dry spring so the peas suffered quite a bit. They didn't get watered much either, just a heavy mulch of wood chip. Anyway, MM was the best productivity wise for the climbers and OSP the best of the littl'uns.

I have more snow peas to trial but that's for another season. I'll use both OG and MM as yardsticks for future trials.

Anyone have a favourite snow pea?

[flowerweaver]

I have one I call "Snow Pea" LOL. I've grown it for a decade and saved my own seed. I have no recollection what it started out to be, but it's delicious. I had no idea others got fibrous.

[ferdzy]

Carouby de Maussane is very like Mammoth Melting, only more so. Bigger pods, stay tender longer. Plants probably a bit shorter overall. We used to grow MM but we have switched to C de M.

[steev]

I tried C de M to no result; I don't blame them, the drought has been wretched for so many things.

[steve1]

Interesting Raymondo. I quite enjoyed Yakumo for taste, but as the seeds swelled parchment reared its head. Full parchment in my line from diggers. Oh, and it looked like a Christmas tree covered in snow - so bad was the powdery mildew. Oregon Giant was good. OSP I grew a couple of years ago before I developed OCD about parchment. Will grow it again in Autumn. Shiras was good young, but the pods developed tastes that weren't pleasant as the bushes aged, and had some parchment at full maturity. The pea seeds are huge - and I elected not to try them at maturity. I have to say the environment for these grow outs were in a poly tunnel, and this year temps at least up to 45 C regularly. However all plants were irrigated very well. The reason I say this is parchment formation has been linked to a heat shock protein. I wonder whether dry conditions over express this parchment genes. I'll have to dig out the paper and re read.

[templeton]

This was the third year in a row I tried a snowpea trial. Trouble is, spring is so busy in the garden and at work that I never get round to either growing them properly, or assessing them properly. Maybe this autumn, if I time it right.

[richardw]

I'm trying Giant Mammoth at the moment which have produced a huge crop from two 6x1sqm beds, did eat a few in salads when the pods were small which had a very taste. Should get a few kgs of seed if the hedgehogs leave them along.