Pea shoots for salads and stirfries

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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oldherbaceous
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Dear Alan, we are basking in glorious sunshine here. :twisted:
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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alan refail
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Smug baskers :evil:
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oldherbaceous
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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alan refail
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Further update on experiment

Kelvedon Wonder sown early March produced plenty of tasty shoots; the leafy ones were very good, the ones with flowers even better and the ones with leaf, flower and baby pods the best of all. The plants went on to produce a steady crop of pods and were finally pulled up 1 August.

Another 3 dozen were sown 2 August and planted out yesterday 21 August. It will be interesting to see what these produce up to Christmas.

After last year's disaster with the November-sown Kelvedon Wonder I have saved a couple of dozen round-seeded peas from the bird food, which I will try sowing in a couple of months to see if they survive the frost.
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Johnboy
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Hi Alan,
Thank you for the update. It is only through experimentation that we get to know about these things. As a grower of quite a few Peas I am interested to know if you actually get a multi-stemmed final plant and if the output is multiplied for a given area. If this turns out to be so, I can either cut down on how many Peas I sow or increase my production and sample the picked shoots.
I mentioned Broad Beans earlier in the thread and mine have been cut back and the regeneration is occurring. I am not sure at what height I should take the shoots. I am going to take some shoots today and see if they will regenerate any further. If they do, and I already have been eating the tender tops that the Black Fly love for years, they can be another vegetable to my armoury. I will remove all the shoots off some and one or two from other plants by way of an experiment.
By the way when BB's set too many when they are about 3 to 4 inches long they make a very tasty Mange-tout. I am convinced that by removing a few from each plant improves the final yield.
JB.
Last edited by Johnboy on Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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alan refail
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Morning JB

I certainly got multi-stemmed plants, though I can't say whether I got a greater yield as I haven't grown peas for years and I only had a couple of dozen plants anyway. I only know they kept cropping into late July.
Have a look at this thread for some info on yield.
When I used field beans for green manure I always left a strip specially for eating as mange-tout.

Alan
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Johnboy
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Hi Again Alan,
The thought has just occurred to me that runner beans later on in growth send out extra runners. I wonder if say at around the 3ft mark the beans were to topped could they be induced too send out multi-runners.
I think I will give that a whorl next year.
You would have thought with the amount of Field Beans that I have grown over the years I might have thought of doing exactly what you mention! It's a lot of good telling me now!
JB.
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alan refail
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Latest update

The Kelvedon Wonder sown at the start of August are now 18 inches high, flowering at the tops and setting "mini mangetout". We have already had one picking of shoots - every bit as tasty as the summer ones - and look forward to a lot more as the plants send up side shoots. The tastiest shoots are the ones with flowers and tiny pods.
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Colin_M
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Hi Alan, I too have tried a second crop of climbing peas this Autumn.

I'd hoped for a warmer autumn (plus some rain to save me watering) but having sown them at the end of July they're already around 4 feet high with several pods on them. Like you we'll probably end up using them as mange-touts, as the supply of actual peas doesn't look like it will be fast enough for any one meal.
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alan refail
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Johnboy wrote:Hi Alan,
A very interesting experiment and I hope it works out well for you.
You can also do a similar thing with Broad Beans. When they are about 8" high take the tops out and they in turn will send up young shoots (plural)from the base. I have never done this myself but a close friend has done this for years. I always cut mine back to within 4" of the ground after cropping and always get a late crop from the resulting regeneration.
I suppose you could pick these regenerations rather than a crop of beans
later on.
However please keep us posted to how your experiment goes.
JB.



I sowed Aguadulce broad beans 11/11/2009 in the polytunnel. They are now about 6 - 7 inches high. They are growing "multi-stalked" and we have just tried the first tender tips in salad for lunch - delicious and well worth a try.
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The other leaves which are worth including in a mixed green salad for a slightly different taste are very young blackcurrant leaves.
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alan refail
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Latest update:

Broad bean shoots are still producing tasty shoots for salad. Pea Hâtif d'Annonay sown in polytunnel 28 February 2010 now two and a half feet high and producing masses of tender shoots. Pods that set we pick and eat raw at about 1 to 2 inches long - even more delicious. If you haven't tried it, please give it a go.
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