Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi

I've just discovered what I think is pea mildew on my pea plants. My instinct is to pull them up and destroy them immediately. But not all the pea pods are full. So I have two questions. Is it ok to eat the peas that are full on the plants and do I have to destroy the plants before the other pods have filled out?
Thanks for your help and a wonderful magazine.
Best wishes
Kath

I get this regularly and generally get a crop despite how bad they look & the peas themselves are not affected. However saying that I have just had to trash them, not because of the mildew but little furry friends (or maybe feathered), had all the peas.

If the plants are really badly covered in mildew, the pods won't finish filling so you might as well pick them now, but if there are only parts mildewed, you might as well wait and see. If the pods themselves have some mildew on them, the peas inside will still be ok to eat, I would think. We used to get mildew on the peas regularly on the allotment until I dug a shallow trench parallel and on the upside of the row of peas and completely filled it with water every time we went to the allotment and that seemed to do the trick - most of the time, anyway!

That is so helpful. Thank you both so much.
Kath