Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All, hope your well? I just wanted to ask, when is best to sow Peas , to avoid Pea Moth? I suffered terribly with it last year on my plot, I am in West Yorkshire, Thanks

Hi Connie,
Advice from the RHS:-

Non-pesticide control

Peas can be grown under horticultural fleece, insect-proof mesh, to prevent female moths laying eggs on the plants. Peas are self-pollinating and so excluding bees and other pollinators with fleece will not affect the crop.
Quick-maturing cultivars that are sown early or late and which flower outside of the egg laying period of the moth (June and July) should remain un-infested. Similarly mange-tout types of pea, where the pods are eaten before the seeds develop, should not be affected.

Pesticide control

Pesticide control can and should be avoided by using insect-proof mesh. Whilst there are some insecticides labelled for use on peas (for example the synthetic pyrethroids deltamethrin, e.g. Sprayday Greenfly Killer or lambda-cyhalothrin e.g. Westland Resolva Bug Killer) adult pea moth is active when peas are in flower and plants in flower should not be sprayed due to the danger to pollinating insects.

Follow label instructions when using pesticides. On edible plants make sure the food plant is listed on the label and follow instructions on maximum number of applications, spray interval and harvest interval.
Inclusion of a pesticide product does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement by RHS Gardening Advice. It is a list of products currently available to the home

Adult pea moths emerge in June-July, when the females seek out pea plants on which they lay their eggs. They are attracted to pea plants that are in flower.

Great ,I feel for armed now. Thankyou

I already grow:

Carrots under mesh to avoid carrot root fly.
Leeks under mesh to avoid allium leaf miner and leek moth.
Brassica under mesh to avoid caterpillars, pidgeons, and a host of other things.

Now I need to grow peas under mesh too. Perhaps I can buy a big polytunnel frame and put enough mesh over it to cover the entire plot. That might work.

I know how you feel Tony! When I first got my allotment, I used to put scary things in and around the cabbages to deter the birds. That was about it. Now we have crop protection over just about everything except the beetroot, parsnips and potatoes. It makes weeding so much more difficult.

We have to do it but it hides the crops as well so you don't get that satisfaction of turning up at the plot & seeing the results of your graft from the gate. But on a positive neither can the light fingered.

You might not have to protect your beetroot, Chantal, but we certainly do: the house sparrows completely wreck the foliage of beetroot as well as lettuce, peas, sweet peas and chard. I have given up growing the last three completely. Lettuce is only gown in the greenhouse and the beetroot have a big metal cage over them.

Perhaps I can buy a big polytunnel frame and put enough mesh over it to cover the entire plot. That might work.

Don't forget the barrier against slugs Tony!