Mildew on peas

[Odsox]

Mildew is something I get from time to time on my pea plants, and this year has been the worst I can remember. We had about 5 days of continuous sea fog which probably had a lot to do with it. Luckily it struck after I had started picking, so I only lost a small percentage of the crop.
Coincidentally .... I'm trialling a new variety that claims to be immune, or at least "resistant" to mildew, and what's more I planted them right next to the non-resistant variety.
Well, I'm impressed, so far not a trace and they look really healthy. I just hope that they taste as good as the non-resistant ones.
The non-resistant ones are Hurst Greenshaft and the new ones are Terrain. I don't need to tell you which is which.

pea.jpg (268.73 KiB) Viewed 7869 times

[Flo]

Would be interested to know how the Terrain ones go as I have a packet of those kicking around for next year. My Hurst Greenshaft were just fine thank you - but not as productive as the Onward.

[Odsox]

but not as productive as the Onward.

I used to grow Onward all the time, then a few years back I decided to run a test on 5 popular varieties to see which one I liked best. They were Little Marvel, Kelvedon Wonder, Avola, Onward & H.G.Shaft and I compared germination, growth, yield, length of harvest and especially taste (both fresh and frozen).
Number one was Hurst Greenshaft, closely followed by Kelvedon Wonder. Avola came last and it was obvious it was a commercial variety as all the pods were ripe at the same time, all over and done with in a week.

I wasn't sorry to see the Onward dropped as they are the devil to shell with their in-curved pods.

[diggernotdreamer]

I am growing Champion of England for the first time and they are quite big pods, the peas are massive too, not a sweet pea for eating out of the pod, but they cook alright and I quite like that marrowfat pea taste. I haven't seen that degree of mildew and in spite of the rain and more rain, they seem quite healthy. What is the flavour like of the peas you are trialling OS

[Odsox]

What is the flavour like of the peas you are trialling OS

Don't know yet DnD, they have only just started flowering.
I'll let you know in a couple of weeks.

I grew Champion of England some years back, they were fine for dried peas but were rather tall. I grew them in the tunnel but had I grown them outdoors I don't think they would have survived the wind.

[ina]

I love peas, but don't have enough space really to grow them... I only do sugar snap peas every year, as they suit me well for picking a handful every day for my salad, or a stir fry, or mixed with other veg. They look rather ravaged after the storm we've had.

That photo is impressive! What a difference...

[diggernotdreamer]

I am also growing some rather nice little dwarf peas called Oskar, they are a bit different to the other dwarf ones I grew before as they have full sized pods of tasty nice peas, they supposedly need no support, but with the wind here, I am going to push a few little sticks in to support the vines with the next lot as the first ones got a bit flattened

[Green Aura]

Well our peas are just plants - not a single pod in sight, after a couple of months or more. My OH is more tolerant than me - I'd have pulled them up a while back.

Same with our tomatoes this year too, lush plants, no fruit, although they're just starting apparently. The only thing doing well this year are courgettes and runner beans. Oh and turmeric - I may never need buy any again.

[diggernotdreamer]

what what, you have grown turmeric, how have you done this

[ina]

Weird, isn't it, how different the results are... I have plenty of sugar snap peas, but no runner beans and the broad beans are a disaster, too, despite loads of flowers. Courgettes so-so - strangely they are producing "twins" (2 fruit growing half connected), which I've never had before.

And I'd be interested in turmeric, too!

[Green Aura]

I get a weekly organic veg box and they do fresh turmeric root. The bag sat on the counter for several weeks while I pondered on what to do with them (= forgot them) and then I noticed some of them were sprouting. So we bunged all of them (about a dozen) in a plant pot of compost and now I have about 11 thriving plants. Still don't know what to do with them mind!

If they survive and look robust enough to survive the post I'll send you one, back end.

[ina]

Brilliant!
I would have thought they'd need higher temperatures - but maybe they'll do indoors? Must investigate.

[Odsox]

What is the flavour like of the peas you are trialling OS

We had the first cook tonight and they are OK'ish but nowhere as good as H.G.Shaft. The peas are small, virtually petit pois, and the pods are short too. Plus they take quite a long time for the pods to swell, I note that my first post was August 9th and there were lots of flowers out, so it has taken nearly a month to start cropping.
But, there is still no mildew and it has a heavy crop and there are still flowers and buds to come, so I haven't really made up my mind as to whether I will grow them again.

[Odsox]

Well that experiment failed miserably.
That Terrain variety did stay totally unscathed by mildew, but then got clobbered by rust. The flavour of the actual peas was quite nice but the yield was not a patch on other varieties, having small peas in short pods.
Of course it didn't help that it got bashed by storm force winds a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think I'll be growing it again.
I do have a row in the tunnel that's due to produce pods in October, so it still has a last gasp chance to redeem itself.

BUT .. now that I've seen such a difference between a mildew resistant variety and my usual non-resistant one, I think next year I will grow several different varieties that claim resistance and see how they perform.
Although I'm not convinced I'll find a better flavoured variety than Hurst Greenshaft.

[Green Aura]

Have you had a look at heirloom varieties. I can't tell you any specific varieties but I'm sure I've seen reference to several older varieties being more resilient.