Pea trouble

shan

Hi all

Planted three rows of peas in mid/late March, hurst green shaft, sugar bon and dwarf sweetgreen. Row's 1 and 3 are doing beautifully but row 2 (sugar bon) are awful...half a doz plants simply didn't come up, the rest were doing fine and just seemed to stop growing, then they spurted again a little and now they look as if they're being eaten by something. Row's 1 and 3 are approx 6" The troubled row is ranging from half" to 2". I've put enough beer down to keep a brewry ticking over and lately against my better judgement have resorted to slug tox, however Im not seeing any trails or dead slugs or empty snail shells. I must explain that the land they're on is newly cultivated after 40yrs of growing weeds, it was all burned off last summer, dug last autumn and had the chickens on it devouring the bugs until spring. I do have lots of wireworms and expected some losses but this is baffling me, the row is in the middle, the spacing is correct, we put in well rotted compost whilst digging it over in early spring. What's gone wrong??? Should I take em out and start over?? Feed em with nettle minute, growmore etc?? Also..this will sound silly to you pro pea growers but the pea leaves have a scratched, whitish look to them, all the peas do, is this natural for the leaf or is it something missing in the soil?
Thanks in advance

PH01

I've never grown pea before only sweetpea, but it sounds like a bad batch of seeds, or germination didn't happen. Have you grown that verity of pea before?

Do a search for 'Suger Bon Pea' on Google to see if it throws up anything.

Victor

Does that variety need any particular nutrient that isn't present in your soil / fertilizer?

Pigeons like pea plants, soem netting might be handy, especially latter in the summer.

However I would go with the bad batch of seed theory.

shan

Hmmmm...Thanks guys sounds like you could both be right Iv'e not planted any kind of peas before, this is my first year at the veggies having tortured the shrubs n flowers for 15yrs thought it was time to let em have a rest. I've been reading about crop rotation etc and wonder now would it be ok to dig up the miserable pea seelings and plant another batch in their place, (from a new pack) surely it couldn't do much harm as they really couldn't have taken much from the soil they're so puny??

Thanks again

Victor

Originally posted by shan
Hmmmm...Thanks guys sounds like you could both be right Iv'e not planted any kind of peas before, this is my first year at the veggies having tortured the shrubs n flowers for 15yrs thought it was time to let em have a rest. I've been reading about crop rotation etc and wonder now would it be ok to dig up the miserable pea seelings and plant another batch in their place, (from a new pack) surely it couldn't do much harm as they really couldn't have taken much from the soil they're so puny??

No I don't think it's a problem. Why not add to rather than replace?

Oh, Marrowfat peas from the box make perfect (and readily available) seeds. Used to use them when I was about 16.

Victor

Try using a planter box (old cut down milk cartons work if you can't recycle them) initally and place them indoors overnight, as soem nights are still quite cold.