Pea'd off!!

[chadspad]

I have been very excited about my peas this year. Theyre tall, robust and bushy unlike every other year. Then to my dismay theyve flowered in beautiful pinks & purples! Im assuming theyre sweet peas? Ive googled the variety ive got and they show white flowers - Im gutted. Somehow, ive gotten my sweet peas and my normal peas mixed up and planted wrongly but the peas which I planted thinking theyre sweet peas dont look like normal peas either!! Now Im thinking ive probably not got time to do another round of edible peas. I have been so good at labelling everything this year - obviously just forgot the peas!!

Now, is anyone going to make my day and tell me that edible peas can flower with lots of beautiful colours? How can I distinguish sweet from edible? Will the sweet peas pod and are they edible anyway?

[Green Aura]

You've got loads of time - peas are one of the veg you plant in succession so they keep producing longer. So don't worry get some more in. I'd just do enough to last a couple of weeks and plant every couple of weeks until August or even September, depending on your climate.

[grahamhobbs]

Were the flowers bicoloured, pink and purple, because that is what I got as well, fortunately for me they were rogue ones amounst the majority of proper ones.

[Odsox]

It should be easy when you sow them as garden peas look like ... well garden peas, a bit shrivelled and maybe not so green, but fairly large.
Sweet peas on the other hand have small brown or black seeds and look a bit like peppercorns.

But as Maggie says, there's still plenty of time to sow some more .. just make sure it's the right sort.

[grahamhobbs]

Odsox, my seeds were indisguishable amoungst the peas, but I didn't think they were sweet pea although very pretty, but as peas they weren't any good.

[grahamhobbs]

Talking about peas, anyone grown the variety Sima over winter? A fellow allotment holder grows them and although wrinkle seeded they are extremely tough and vigorous outdoors over winter, much better than Feltham First, Meteor, etc, that are marketed for over wintering outdoors but are a bit delicate. Just wondered how other people had tried them, whether they also had good flavour, etc.

[chadspad]

My packet of pea says only sow til May and when ive tried to grow later in the year theyve been rubbish.

Graham - Bi-coloured definitely!! Every plant is a different colour with some being white too.

The thing thats makes me think they are possibly edible peas is that the leaves are different. These have kind of thick and sticky leaves the same as the mange tout whereas what I thought were sweet peas are smooth and smaller with lots of buds for flowers.

Will sweet peas develop pods the same as edible peas do?

[chadspad]

Having done a more indepth search Ive found that there are photos on the net of edible peas having those coloured flowers. Some people seem surprised by this in their reviews so perhaps its not a normal thing? Anywa, Im sure that this is an edible pea that I planted correctly The leaves are different to the sweet pea as are the stems and the texture.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CMLDT 23 June 2008 Peas Dr. Evans (Pisum sativum)

I suspect the talk is about Dr. Evan's peas. I grew these in 2008. the production was wonderful, but I didn't like the peas. they were hard and tasteless.

[chadspad]

Yes that definitely looks like them. Got the same mottled leaves too. Hopefully mine wont be tasteless though!!

[Durgan]

Yes that definitely looks like them. Got the same mottled leaves too. Hopefully mine wont be tasteless though!!

I was looking for pictures of the peas in an open pod. I will do a afurther search of my files. If I remember correctly the peas were not green but a sort of black color. I like eating peas raw and the Dr. Evans peas were not pleasant to eat this way.

[chadspad]

Dont think its the same variety as them although they do look similar. Mine are Téléphone nain just a standard but rustic French variety.

[chadspad]

Peas?



sweet peas?

[Odsox]

Yep, that's about right.
AFAIK garden peas have regular tubular stems and sweet peas have flattish angular stems.
Which is what I think I can see in your pics.

[chadspad]

Well theyre extremely pretty looking peas! Lets hope they taste as good as they look.