Last fall was my first time growing peas. I planted some Little Marvel pea seedling transplants, then followed up about a month later with sowing Little Marvel seeds in between the transplants. I had them growing on a pea trellis I built (even though they say bush types are self-supporting). The first several harvests from the seedlings were normal, but then a couple strange things happened. 1) They started to grow much taller than normally described "bush-type" (i.e. 18 inches tall), many of the vines grew more than 4 ft.! 2) The peas actually started resembling snow peas - the pods were fairly thin-skinned, and would just get bigger and longer until I picked them, the seeds inside never filling out - ever. They were completely edible, I ate them just like snow peas.

This happened with the seeds I sowed too (although they stayed fairly short), so two completely different sources, not just a fluke with the transplants.

How in the world did this happen? I've seen references elsewhere describing certain varieties as "may produce off-types", but I don't know what this means (I'm a fairly newbie). They did end up getting powdery mildew, but I don't know if this has anything to do with it. They continued to produce, even with the PM.

Anyone have any clue?