Best setup for climbing peas

[Colin_M]

This question may apply to ordinary peas, as well as the ones that grow taller (like Alderman, Telegraph etc).

I generally put some netting on canes up for peas. Peas appear to need this more than things like runner beans etc and this year I'm going to concentrate on climbing peas

However at the end of the season, the plants are well and truly entwined into the netting and I find it hard to separate them. This means I have to leave a pile to rot down and even then sometimes end up binning the lot as I can't extract the plastic from the dry material.

How does everyone else approach this? Do you use string, or something else that supports the climbing but which is easier to clear up at the end of the season?

[June]

I too grow tall peas.
The method I use is to weave tall canes through heavy duty plastic coated wire mesh (the type you can pin to fences for climbing plants)
and erect it upright pushing the canes into the soil. I grow lines of peas either side of it.
At the end of the season it is fairly easy to pull all the pea growth off them and they are ready to dismantle and put away for use again next year.
(As the peas grow up the mesh it's also easy to secure them by tying twine on to the mesh horizontally at various levels and sort of weaving it through the growth.)
Hope all this makes sense....if I knew how to post pictures it would be easier to show than to describe!!
June

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
As a builder of brick Cazzie's I drive 8ft, 2" x2" stakes 2ft into the ground about 6ft apart and use two lengths of pig netting over lapped by a couple of feet. I grow the peas very slightly forward of the netting and clearing the haulm is never a problem. Radio will reach around 6ft and in cases a little over. Alderman reach about 5ft. and I do the same for them.
With Hurst's Greenshaft I only use one width of netting and they do not get anywhere near the top only around 2.5ft.
Probably pig netting may be not on your agenda but whatever you do the structure must be fairly substantial because of the wind. If necessary side braces should be employed but this will depend on how windy your site is.
JB.

[Geoff]

I only grow Greenshaft. I use a double row of treated slate battens a foot apart on about four foot centres. I tie four horizontals of binder twine along one side, plant the peas from root trainers, push in lots of twiggy sticks usually Silver Birch then hold it all in place by putting binder twine along the other side. If you are particularly exposed you can add a post at each end. At the end of the season I remove the twine and battens and put the twigs and haulm through the shredder, the twigs usually stop it blocking too badly, makes a good addition to the compost heap.

[Tigger]

I grow mine up a row of arches (with climbing annual flowers amongst them) and I put string widthways, from arch to arch. Then when they've finished, I just cut the string.

[Monika]

We grow ours up buddleia cuttings. We are lucky to have about 8 large buddleia bushes at home and on the allotment which need cutting down in March, so I just take the tips out (to stop them seeding all over the vegetable beds) and then use them as pea sticks. At the end of the season, I let the pea roots release their nitrogen into the soil and when the haulms have dried up, the whole lot if pulled up and burnt.

[ken]

This is arguably not[i] the best set up for peas, though it worked. Last year I was stuck to know what to use for pea sticks. Then I rescued a load of dogwood prunings which had lain on our shreddings pile for three weeks to a month - long straight ones from the common red-barked variety, and shorter branched ones from Midwinter Bonfire. They worked very well to support the peas, but several of the red ones rooted. I was really astonished, bearing in mind how long they had been lying on the shredding heap. Maybe buddlia will be a better bet this season![/i]

[nemo]

i grow a 24 foot row of peas and beans each year i live near to the Atlantic we get very windy weather,i tried using wooden poles, hazel wigwams. but the wind beat me each time,below is what i did it a lot of work but i get great crops that aren't covered in mud after a windy spell so far so good. i have to do this four times once each spring as i work on a four year rotation, i have tree years of pipes concreted into the soil so far next spring will be the last time .i have shallow soil about 12 inches below this is very compacted gravel and stone.i bury 3, 28 inches of 2 inch galvanized pipe in concrete leaving about 4 inches of pipe above soil level-one at both ends of the row and one in the middle of the row. into this i put the next size down from 2 inch pipe ,1 3/4 inch galvanized pipe. this is about 8 foot long.i cut plastic piping into 10 inch lengths(this came from a farmer they are used to wrap plastic covering used to cover round bale silage)i put one of them over the galvanized pipes then i cut galvanized wire (used to to make paddocks to fence in livestock) about 27 feet long this is tied at both ends i use flexible galvanized wire to tie the heavy wire to the middle pole in between the plastic pipe spacers .then i put another piece of plastic piping then i tie more wire .the plastic acts as spacers to space the wire.i use a squeezers to tighten the wire,don't over squeeze the top wires as the rest will become slack, all the pipes buried in concrete are spaced at the same distance this way the same wire is used year after year.everything is reusable the wire will last 10 to 15 years.i know its a lot of work and maybe i didn't explain it properly.but you end up with a strong rust resistant frame work that will tolerate strong winds. the galvanized piping will last 30 years plus
i bought the galvanized piping in 20 foot lengths
the heavy galvanized wire came in roles
the flexible wire i bought in small rolls
all were bought at my local agribusiness store.
i priced the materials at our local hardware store it came to almost double the price in the agribusiness store.
if i get used to the digital camera i will put them on this forum

[Colin_M]

if i get used to the digital camera i will put them on this forum

That would be useful to help us visualise this Nemo