Another question about peas

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Primrose
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I regularly use dried household soup peas for growing pea shoots to liven up salads. They are very inexpensive compared to any shooting pea sprout seeds one might be able to buy in a garden centre although I have never seen peas sold in this format for sprouting purposes. I have a longer term query about their growing capabilities when they get to developing pods.

Can anybody tell me what kind of pea pods they might produce if grown to that level of maturity? I like to grow mangetout peas. They're obviously expensive if purchased in a garden centre seed packet. I was wondering whether the immature pods of mushy dried soup peas would produce a substitute "mangetout" if picked before the peas had started to develop inside?

I have limited growing space so am relictant to waste a growing row if it wouldn't work but am always willing to experiment. Has anybody ever tried it. I imagine the pea pods if allowed to grow to maturity would produce pretty awful fresh peas!
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Pa Snip
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I cant answer your questions Primrose since until now I have never even thought about growing peas to eat when at the shoot stage.

However you have now planted the seed of the idea in my mind so thank you.

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

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Elaine
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Primrose, we still grow dried "Mushy Peas" to mature pods, so I would think you could well use them as Mange Tout. Marrowfat peas are lovely, so they will be very sweet and tasty as immature flat pods.
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Primrose
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Pa Snip wrote:I cant answer your questions Primrose since until now I have never even thought about growing peas to eat when at the shoot stage.

However you have now planted the seed of the idea in my mind so thank you.


Well I certainly wouldn't have tried this extravagant use of peas if I were paying the standard cost of packeted peas from a garden centre, but buying inexpensive packets of dried soup peas from the supermarkets and using them for pea sprouts in salads or ganishes is an entirely different proposition as you can be very generous with your sowings for a much lower cost. The only thing is that you have to plan your sowings well in advance if you want to use them in a special way as they're not the kind of thing you can buy in a supermarket veg section. However, I did see bunches of rather wilted ones on a vegetable street market stall a while ago. Nobody (including the stallholder !! ) seemed to know what to do with them. They obviously have to be picked and used fresh to enjoy them at their subtle best.
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Motherwoman
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Certainly OK for producing sprouts, peas for green use or drying but don't mange-tout have a less fibrous pod? Which is why you have to have a special variety? Anyone know this one?

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Primrose
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I was wondering about this myself MW as I've never tried growing them to this state of maturity before. Guess I'm just a little impatient about having to wait a few weeks to test the experiment but then nothing in gardening is "instant" is it?
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FelixLeiter
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Primrose wrote:Can anybody tell me what kind of pea pods they might produce if grown to that level of maturity? I like to grow mangetout peas. They're obviously expensive if purchased in a garden centre seed packet. I was wondering whether the immature pods of mushy dried soup peas would produce a substitute "mangetout" if picked before the peas had started to develop inside?

No. Varieties which have been selected to be grown as mangetout have pods which lack an internal parchment which makes the immature pods of other varieties unpleasant to eat when eaten this way. Seeds from the garden centre are indeed expensive (especially Suttons, Johnsons, T&M: blimey they're dear). I prefer to buy seeds mail order — Kings or D T Brown give good service at the right price. When it comes to peas and beans, buying in commercial quantities gives even better value in the long run as seeds can be stored for several years.
For more bang for your buck, have you considered growing sugar snap peas? The pod is eaten when the peas within are fully developed. High yields and delicious.
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Primrose
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If I had an allotment I'd certainly buy certain seeds in commercial quantities but growing in a plot in a back garden unfortunately limits one's scope and I often find I can't use all the seed in one packet, let alone buying in larger quantities. I do keep seed as long as practical but every year have to go through my seed boxes and throw out a few packets which realistically have aged too much to risk being viable. With the cost of seeds now that is quite a waste, which is why the dried supermarket peas option is attractive, especially when they can be used for pea shoots as well.
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