How did your hand crosses from last year turn out, @MichaelFomhar?
I ended up planting out four of my crosses in October and three of them managed to overwinter and are producing F2 seed now. Here’s a cross between Sugar Magnolia snap pea and one of my snow peas. It has some of the purple pod color but with the snow pea pod shape. My other crosses are also showing intermediate traits so I’m confident they were effective. I’ll be planting these F2 seeds ASAP to get an additional generation in this year.
This spring I planted out more seeds from each of these crosses along with four additional hand crosses I didn’t have enough seeds of to risk overwintering, and all of the parent varieties to make additional crosses this year. The variation in growth habit between varieties and crosses is already visible.
I plan to mostly let these F1 crosses self this year in order to collect the more diverse F2 seed, but will be doing some back-crossing to target specific traits from parent varieties. I’ll mostly focus on making new crosses between varieties I missed last year, with a focus on crossing exceptional traits (colors, flavor, productivity, etc) with highly disease resistant varieties from the OSU breeding lines (Oregon Sugar Pod II, Oregon Giant, Cascadia Snap, etc.). Most of these F1 crosses will be snow type pod shapes because that trait is dominant, but I hope to select out snap and shelling pod types again in future years.
I also hope to collect enough F2 & F3 seed to return to the GTS seed mixes so other folks can select from these crosses. If anyone is interested in how to do this yourself, I put together a visual guide last year.
Only one out of the several I did took, and was eaten by a pekish toddler a couple weeks later
but I’ll be trying again shortly, they’re only about knee high or so now. And her impulse control has improved so the flag tape should help this time
My peas have taken over the garlic! I tried to interplant them with favas to use as a trellis but they decided to grow beside them instead, and now cling onto the garlic on the border of the garden bed. A crazy sideways leaning pea garlic jungle! First time growing soup peas and I think i will let them all dry down before harvesting..?
Seems reasonable to me if it’s your first time growing them and you’re just looking to increase seed from the ones that do best for you.
The GTS soup peas are sort of a maximum diversity category that includes peas specifically bred for use as dry peas as well as some sweet shelling peas and edible pod types. It may be worth sampling pods from plants that do well to evaluate if the pods are edible and/or the peas remain sweet rather than going starchy as they mature. If either of those uses are of interest to you, you could flag those plants and save seed separately.
Only this single pod segregated out with partial red/purple seed coat, but there’s quite a bit of variation showing up in seed size, shape, and (possibly) sweet vs starchiness based on how much they’ve shrunk as they dry down. I crossed these last spring and grew these plants from F1 seed over the winter.
That looks so pretty with the multicolour peas going on! I love the idea of having a snap/dry pea variety instead of multiple patches of different peas. I have been letting my peas all dry down and will plant em all again next year for a larger harvest and with a better layout. I love snap peas but mainly aim to grow soup peas because dry storage is easiest for me to prioritize with crops (dry beans n peas, grain corn, squash, potatoes, things that don’t need to be canned or frozen)
Question.. in terms of starchy vs sweet, is that just for shelling peas? Or do you want soup peas to be sweet as well? I have no idea how to tell my shelling apart from the dry soup peas, as I ended up planning telephone peas with my soul peas before I knew any better… Guess I’d have to cook em a few at a time and see how the texture/flavour is?
Snap peas are mostly about selecting for the thickness of the pod walls and against fibrous pods. Sweeter is better for fresh eating, but some starchiness can be tolerable, especially if you’re cooking with the pods.
Soup peas can really be just about any pea variety, but I’d personally want to select against thick, tough seed coats and for depth of flavor. In my experience dried starchy peas tend to hold up better in cooking and have a meatier/nuttier flavor. It can be easier to shell dry peas from pods that are fibrous because they pop open rather than just crumbling. That’s a tension that complicates selecting for a dual purpose dry/snap pea.
One other consideration for harvesting dry peas is whether they will tolerate fall planting and overwinter for you or not. The plants are much more vulnerable to pea weevils in the late spring and early summer, so getting an earlier harvest can help avoid an infested crop of dry seeds. About half of plants I sowed last fall made it through the winter, but I’m a little south of you so you may have slightly more extreme winter temperatures.
Good to know about the starchiness for soup peas! Snap pea seems pretty straightforward in terms of selection criteria
I’d love to prioritize fall planting for both peas and fava beans. My main concern for overwintering any crops is the amount of rain I receive and being mindful of what area in my yard will flood. I’m also working on amending my clay soil so root rot isn’t an issue, since drainage is crucial in the downpour weather. My winters are generally very mild, or at least last winter was… One or two snow fall that lasted a day before melting, then just more rain, rain, rain. Every few years I get a cold one though and weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable for all of us in different ways it seems!
Last winter was the first time I tried and I did neither. I grew them in buckets because that was the spot in my garden that was available at the time I planted them and I had not planned ahead. I don’t think buckets make sense though, because the soil temperature both heats up more quickly in the sun and cools down faster during a cold snap.
This winter I’m focusing on giving them a better spot to grow in ground with a trellis to keep them up off the ground since I’ll be growing my tall dry/soup pea varieties. Some mulch might help protect the roots.
Good to know! Im debating replanting some of my soup peas just to experiment with over wintering but prefer not to fuss with row covers if I can help it… The less materials needed the better! I also need to give em a better spot. Gonna tuck em right up against my fence line as a trellis.
