Kitchen Garden Forum

I have a row of peas, Early Prelado, Early Onward and Greenshaft - just a small number of each. I bought the Early Prelado from a nursery in an attempt to get an early crop, which I did. However, the pea flowers started to shrivel and failed to open so I pulled them up and the others progressed ok, or seemed to. However, they have succumbed to the same problem - it seemed to work it's way along the row. The plants are vigorous and growing well apart from that and trying to produce more flowers but they merely shrivel up and pea pods are slow in filling up. Any ideas - the broad beans and runners on either side are fine.

Sounds like lack of water at the roots or, at least, lack of moisture in the air. Perhaps too dry for insects to pollinate them?

It sounds very like a problem I had a few years ago that I never got to the bottom of viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7452&p=69910&hilit=peas#p69910 I had exactly the same with it spreading along the rows and down the plants from top to ground. Probably something like JohnBoy suggested but never identified. The photo doesn't load in the old thread but here it is again.

Thanks Monika and Geoff. But no lack of water and the foliage is perfectly healthy except around the flowers where it is slightly stunted. It is the flowers that appear but do not open and shrivel up. Looking at the runners this morning a bit afraid they might be affected.

I too wondered abiut lack of moisture or pollination but as yiu say they,ve been well watered it can,t be that. I wondered if possible the seeds had been exposed to some toxic substance before they,d been packed.

It,s frustrating thst sometimes we never find the answer but possibly avoid growing that variety again next year in case its still a problem. They might be more vulnerable to the heat of course. Some plants or varieties do survive temperatures less well than others.

Whatever the problem was with the 3 varieties of Peas - Early Prelado, Early Onward, Hurst Greenshaft - it has not affected with of the two Broad Bean varieties I grew next to them - Vroma (Meteor) and Aqadulce Claudia, as today I picked the first crop of well-filled pods with the promise of far more to come. They seemed to have liked the heat as well as have the Sweetcorn which has come on leaps and bounds over the last few days. Just waiting to see how the Runners do.

Charles Dowding latest video "tour of Homeacres 17 July" show his peas in a similar state, his comments may put your mind at rest.

Hi Colin - can't seem to find the Charles Dowding video. What does he say?

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzjdcDQ7A8E

Starts at 11.29 mins

He says it is not a problem it's sign they are finishing.

Hi Colin - thanks. However, I think he is wrong. I have grown peas for many, many years and have never seen them finish like that. And I don't think they ever really got properly started.

The same problem seems to have affected some tomato plants that I was given as my Marshalls order was very late arriving. These were, I think, from the same nursery (will have to check) as the peas and had suffered through neglect so needed some TLC before planting out. I actually put 4 of them in growbags outside and 2 exactly where the Prelado Peas had been. All appeared to grow very well but like the peas, the flowers mainly failed to set. So I have binned them all as I didn't want them to infect my greenhouse toms which have loads of fruit. All rather weird.

That is an interesting theory to follow up on. I'm just thinking did the firm that grew the plants have contaminated compost or like so many others had issues with peat free? I would contact them direct, but before then check if they have a comments page or post on some of the FB garden sites to see if others have had a similar problem. I would think if this was somehow from them then they will want to know about it as it is their livelihood they will want to protect. I have read on the sites that people had loads of fails when potting on the seedlings not from the sowing compost with peat free.

Evening Colin, I have had serious problems with Fusarium wilt on my Nicotiana plants (tobacco plant) this year, i’m sure this can effect peas and tomatoes…so this could be causing your problem.

No definitely not the symptoms of Fusarium wilt so still a bit of a mystery.