Kitchen Garden Forum

I've always just grown Kelvendon Wonder to date but this year want to grow some very tall peas up my runner bean canes. I have no idea what varieties might be suitable for this. Can somebody advise me please and whether there are any special growing needs for these taller varieties .

Alderman is a very tall, tasty and productive pea. Ours have grown to about 5 ft in the past and I have always treated them the same way as the shorter varieties, except for tall supports. of course.

Just as I had sent the last comment, I remembered: mangetout peas are usually taller than ordinary peas, too. So, if you like these, Primrose, Carouby de Mausanne is a good, tall variety.

It would appear taller peas fell out of favour as they cannot be harvested by Machine, so any available variety would fall in the 'Heritage' category, we picked some up from Ryton's Heritage Seed Library a couple of years ago.

A few at random, claimed to grow to six feet or more:
Carruthers’ Purple Podded
Simpson’s Special
Lancashire Lad
Telephone
Champion of England (up to ten feet!)

From a google search for 'Heritage Tall peas', it seems to be most sites advertising them from Canada & the US

doesn't OH grow fabulously tall peas every year??

I'm interested in trying tall peas because I have very limited growing space and thought I would probably get a better yield per plant than shorter varieties, possibly over a slightly longer cropping period. Am I working under a misapprehension with this theory?

Old H will have the answers to your questions, have no fear!

I do indeed grow tall peas, i used to always grow alderman, but now it's Ne Plus Ultra and Radeo. The Radeo peas very kindly came from Clive, and these can reach up to eight feet in height. Although the pods are not the longest, the peas can be left to get quite large, and are still very sweet and tender.
The Ne Pus Ultra have longer pods, but and not as sweet and tasty. these get to a little over six feet.

To produce really good crops of tall peas, that will crop for a long time, you really need a good depth of soil that is rich in moisture retaining humus.

Robinson from the Heritage Seed Library is a lovely sweet tasting pea. Very productive and even if you leave them on a bit longer than you should the peas still keep their sweetness. They are a very tall pea. I save seeds from mine every year.

I orderd 2 different varieties of tall peas from the real seed catalogue 3 nights ago 2 of lord leister and one called telephone the first one grows to 10 feet tall the second to 7 feet they arrived this morning i am very impressed with the service and information supplied

I've grown Alderman for 4 years, last year was the 1st year we had maggots. What I did do was grow runners along ones of the canes and the peas down the other, maybe that had some bearing on it.

I do think they a nice sized plant for the average garden.

Evening Sandyback, i think there was a huge problem with pea maggots last year, the late peas on our allotments were badly affected.

OH.....are radeo peas available to buy anywhere? I can't seem to find any!

Morning Retropants, i'm afraid to say i don't think you can buy them anywhere, well not under that name anyway. Clive gave me some seed that had been passed down his family line, so keeping the seed line going.

I would normally have some spare seed, but with the ravages of the pea moth, and the mice eating Codgers seed, i'm afraid i don't have any to spare.

Maybe next year.

Oh, Ok, thanks OH! I'll try to remember next year. It would be nice to have a couple of plants just to start my own pea seed collection next year!