I grew them about a decade ago and they barely produced any harvest at all. By the time I shelled them and cooked them, we had barely enough for one meal, and that was from a long row of plants. It is not strictly Alderman's fault---it is our weather. Any and every variety of shelling pea I've ever grown here is just barely beginning to produce a decent yield when the true hot weather arrives and the pea plants go downhill fast and quit producing.

I attempted to get a harvest from different varieties of shelling peas for three or four years here and finally just switched to growing only edible podded peas like Sugar Snap, Super Sugar Snap, Cascadia, etc. The edible podded peas produce a lot more actual food to eat since you are not shelling them and discarding the pods. The edible podded peas also go downhill fast once the summer heat arrives, but before they do that, they produce a huge harvest compared to the shelling peas. In a good year, I can harvest 30-45 lbs of edible podded peas. We eat all we can fresh and freeze the rest. That is so much more than we ever once got from shelling peas.

I'm in southern OK and the edible podded peas usually produce throughout May and even into June in the years when the heat arrives at about the normal time. Shelling peas were so disappointing here. If you are in a part of OK that stays cold significantly longer than we do in southern OK you might get some harvest from Alderman, but I never found a shelling variety that was happy here.

Dawn,

Thank you so much for your response. My wife loves green shelling peas. I am in central OK and have moderate success with Little Marvel and Alaska peas, but like you said they get fried in the heat really early. I think I will skip planting the Alderman and plant her some grape tomatoes that she likes.

Thanks again.

Karl

Karl, You are so welcome. I understand about the shelling peas. Believe me, if we would stay cooler another month, I think they'd do great here, and I would grow them too. Unfortunately, the heat just arrives too early.

Dawn