I have only every grown early peas, in order to avoid pea moth maggots.

I am wondering whether there is any point in trying maincrop peas
(perhaps tall ones) next season and wonder whether anyone has
successfully grown them without too much of a maggot invasion.
Presumably a fleece barrier would be no good because the flowers
wouldn't set. Are there any other organic solutions?

Janet G

Janet Galpin wrote:
I have only every grown early peas, in order to avoid pea moth
maggots.

I am wondering whether there is any point in trying maincrop peas
(perhaps tall ones) next season and wonder whether anyone has
successfully grown them without too much of a maggot invasion.
Presumably a fleece barrier would be no good because the flowers
wouldn't set. Are there any other organic solutions?

If your neighbours have found your area is specially prone to attack,
you can avoid it by sowing late as well as early -- the end of April,
maybe? I don't think mesh or fleece will interfere with cropping,
though. Derris in an emergency.

But in West Wales I never took precautions and never had a problem: a
few peas had to be chucked out for one reason or another, but you'll
always get that. It's more of a problem for the commercial grower
than for the amateur, who doesn't have to please Captain Birdseye.

Maybe the best thing is to sow three experimental rows, one early,
one middle, and one late, and see how they go.

--
Mike.

"Janet Galpin" wrote in message
...
I have only every grown early peas, in order to avoid pea moth
maggots.

I am wondering whether there is any point in trying maincrop peas
(perhaps tall ones) next season and wonder whether anyone has
successfully grown them without too much of a maggot invasion.
Presumably a fleece barrier would be no good because the flowers
wouldn't set. Are there any other organic solutions?

Janet G

Not sure if they really rely on insect pollination, I'd be tempted to
try a few under enviromesh. It seems that an area either has it or
not. We're fortunate here in North Wales - I've never been troubled in
over 30 years. It was a real problem in the E. Midlands when I was
growing up.

--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

"Janet Galpin" wrote
I have only every grown early peas, in order to avoid pea moth maggots.

I am wondering whether there is any point in trying maincrop peas
(perhaps tall ones) next season and wonder whether anyone has
successfully grown them without too much of a maggot invasion.
Presumably a fleece barrier would be no good because the flowers
wouldn't set. Are there any other organic solutions?

Unfortunately we have recently given up growing tall main crop peas as, due
to the hot dry summers lately, they just give up before cropping. Now only
plant "earlies" both early and late. Always get some maggot attack, even on
the earlies towards the end of their season, but as it's just for us we
throw the "bad" ones away and always have plenty that have no damage.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
Unfortunately we have recently given up growing tall main crop peas
as, due to the hot dry summers lately, they just give up before
cropping. Now only plant "earlies" both early and late. Always get
some maggot attack, even on the earlies towards the end of their
season, but as it's just for us we throw the "bad" ones away and
always have plenty that have no damage.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

We're converting some of our plots to deep beds, and even on the only
partly converted ones we're getting excellent results - admittedly
with a limitless water supply which is sadly only available to a very
lucky few of us. Not bragging.........well only a bit ;~}}
These are our Alderman this year with runner beans in the background.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermana.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermanb.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermanc.jpg

oops.........just noticed you can see our onions on one of the pics -
I'm not proud of those, the later heat treated sets were much better
though.


---
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

Janet Galpin wrote:
I have only every grown early peas, in order to avoid pea moth
maggots.

I am wondering whether there is any point in trying maincrop peas
(perhaps tall ones) next season and wonder whether anyone has
successfully grown them without too much of a maggot invasion.
Presumably a fleece barrier would be no good because the flowers
wouldn't set. Are there any other organic solutions?

If your neighbours have found your area is specially prone to attack,
you can avoid it by sowing late as well as early -- the end of April,
maybe? I don't think mesh or fleece will interfere with cropping,
though. Derris in an emergency.

But in West Wales I never took precautions and never had a problem: a
few peas had to be chucked out for one reason or another, but you'll
always get that. It's more of a problem for the commercial grower
than for the amateur, who doesn't have to please Captain Birdseye.

Maybe the best thing is to sow three experimental rows, one early,
one middle, and one late, and see how they go.

I've heard before that Wales is free of pea moth. I'm S. Lincs and we
seem to have them, judging by the few that have crept into my early
sowings.
I once tried sowing late and found that the plants got very mildewed. I
guess lots of watering might help or growing a variety that isn't too
susceptible to mildew.
Janet G

"Rod Craddock" wrote to wind "Bob Hobden" up :-)
Unfortunately we have recently given up growing tall main crop peas as,
due to the hot dry summers lately, they just give up before cropping. Now
only plant "earlies" both early and late. Always get some maggot attack,
even on the earlies towards the end of their season, but as it's just for
us we throw the "bad" ones away and always have plenty that have no
damage.


We're converting some of our plots to deep beds, and even on the only
partly converted ones we're getting excellent results - admittedly with a
limitless water supply which is sadly only available to a very lucky few
of us. Not bragging.........well only a bit ;~}}
These are our Alderman this year with runner beans in the background.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermana.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermanb.jpg
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/aldermanc.jpg

oops.........just noticed you can see our onions on one of the pics - I'm
not proud of those, the later heat treated sets were much better though.


With the present summer temperatures and lack of rainfall here and only
watering cans to water everything there is no chance of us growing tall peas
like yours. To think we used to grow 3 or 4 varieties.
Onions like it though. :-)

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
With the present summer temperatures and lack of rainfall here and
only watering cans to water everything there is no chance of us
growing tall peas like yours. To think we used to grow 3 or 4
varieties.
Onions like it though. :-)

Just noticed another oops ;~) The first picture is the Hurst
Greenshaft - closer to the camera than the Alderman in the other 2
pics.
Perhaps I should explain about the water supply. It's the Estate's
private supply from a spring that's never been known to dry up in the
6 or 7 centuries that there's been a house here. It runs into an
underground reservoir in the Deerpark and what isn't used in the Hall,
Gardens and farms overflows into a small stream that ends up in the
Dee estuary about half a mile away. That overflow is always running
even in dry year like 1976 so we are extremely fortunate. Oh - and it
makes a lovely cup of tea ;-)
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

"Rod Craddock" wrote
Just noticed another oops ;~) The first picture is the Hurst Greenshaft -
closer to the camera than the Alderman in the other 2 pics.
Perhaps I should explain about the water supply. It's the Estate's private
supply from a spring that's never been known to dry up in the 6 or 7
centuries that there's been a house here. It runs into an underground
reservoir in the Deerpark and what isn't used in the Hall, Gardens and
farms overflows into a small stream that ends up in the Dee estuary about
half a mile away. That overflow is always running even in dry year like
1976 so we are extremely fortunate. Oh - and it makes a lovely cup of tea
;-)

Funny that, when my old farming relatives were alive they had a well to
supply all the water to the house and farmyard whereas the rest of the
village, Wardington, Oxon, were on mains. Some of the older locals used to
come into the farmyard to fill their kettles with the well water in order to
make tea.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
Funny that, when my old farming relatives were alive they had a well
to supply all the water to the house and farmyard whereas the rest
of the village, Wardington, Oxon, were on mains. Some of the older
locals used to come into the farmyard to fill their kettles with the
well water in order to make tea.

The bad news is - our spring water comes out of limestone and it's
*hard*, so much so that my wife descales the kettle at least once a
week. Also for some time we've suspected most liquid feeds don't give
the results they should but this year we've been using 'Peter's'
commercial feeds formulated for hard water and we're seeing much
better pot plants (Cyclamen and Streptocarpus in particular), though
some of that will be down to the good basic husbandry given by my new
assistant.
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.