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stevesj76

Spacing for Peas

stevesj76
16 years ago

I have a newbie question for peas in a SFG. The books says to plant eight in a square. I expect them to grow on a trellis. Is there any special way to plant the peas so that they will grow on the trellis? Or do I plant them in the standard SFG pattern? I've never grown peas before so I'm having trouble visualizing how they all reach the trellis if they are planted in a grid. Thanks!

Comments (7)

  • justaguy2
    16 years ago

    Plant on each side of the trellis. 4 on each side makes 3" spacing. Plant each 1.5" from the trellis (again 3" spacing from each other).

    If these will be short peas (say 24" or less) you can also make an outside trellis that runs around the square (or series of adjacent squares) and plant every 3" in a block.

    You can actually do this with taller peas as well and with the short ones you often don't even need the outside trellis.

    In this way the peas will cling to each other and the trellis around the outside prevents any falling over in a wind. It makes harvesting slightly more challenging, but doubles the peas per square foot.

  • stevesj76
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I want to grow Sugar Snap peas. I guess I didn't realize that I wouldn't use the conduit-frame trellis which are described in the book (attached to the back of the bed). :-) I can improvise though. Do you recomend a shorter trellis placed in the middle of the square? The outside trellis idea sounds cool too. Is it easy to build or should I pick something up? Thanks for the advice.

  • justaguy2
    16 years ago

    For peas I just use u posts (steel fence posts at any hardware store) and some twine strung between them. The peas don't really require much as they don't get heavy. You could really use anything that you can stick securely in the ground and run a few strands of twine horizontally between them.

    I have the first twine a couple inches off the ground and the next about 6" above the first. You can add twine as they grow or just twine up to 2' from the get go.

  • stevesj76
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I just planted my peas! Thanks for the help.

  • josiwax
    16 years ago

    I grow peas in my square foot garden and don't trellis them. They don't get all that tall from my experience. I just use 3' or 4' bamboo sticks and place them next to the peas. I grow a whole 4X4 bed this way. Trellising them like you would cucumbers, beans, or tomatoes seems like overkill to me.

  • stevesj76
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Here is an update on the peas in my garden. Based on the advice above, I now have lots of yummy peas! Here are some pictures of them growing. Thanks for the ideas.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Peas in my garden

  • oxonhammer
    16 years ago

    This is how I handled my peas this year (first time for me too :-))

    I divided each square into four (usual style), and then planted two peas per 6" square. I did this by running a diagonal line through the mini-square, and essentially making a diamond in the main square. I then planted equally on the diagonal lines. ________________
    : /:\ :
    : / : \ :
    : X : X :
    : / : \ :
    : X : X :
    : / : \ :
    ================
    : \ : / :
    : X : X :
    : \ : / :
    : X : X :
    : \ : / :
    : \:/ :

    The ASCII shows sort of what I did. I then just made a wigwam of bamboo canes and placed these in the corners.

    Trouble was, we had so much wind and rain this summer, that I had a few instances of the wigwam falling over! So have had to add a larger wigwam around the outside for support.

    Still, the harvest I've had from my two squares have been very rewarding, so will be attempting again.

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