Pea variety reviews 2021

[bower]

I've been sifting through my pics of the peas I grew this year, and thought I would organize them here for other pea lovers to see.
My current goal with the peas was to find some great soup peas and/or even better, dual purpose peas, that I can realistically grow here.
The trellis for tall peas and the test of how viable that was.... moose, windstorms, hurricanes: I knew what to expect. It's a challenge, and much more realistic to grow some short peas for that.
So I trialed a lot of varieties both short and tall. And I'm starting to learn a bit about pea genetics, and made my first crosses between short ones and tall ones that have qualities I want to see in a shorter, safer pea!
I got three short soup peas from Salt Spring Seeds: Gold Harvest, Margaret McKee's Baking Pea, and a Bush Capucijner. The seeds of these are very similar, quite large, and the color is "maple" that is a marbled yellow to orange seed coat.
These were planted early and none of them were eaten by moose.
I also had some short peas from Nicky and my friend Triffid in the UK : Shiraz, Red Fox Carlin, Kent Blue.
And two more from McKenzie seeds: Tai Chung and Sugar Sprint.
In the tall peas, Biskopens (aka Swedish Red) and Bulroyd Bean were planted as a main crop on the big trellis. I grew these up for seed last year.
More talls from Nicky and Triffid: Corne de Belier, Brazilian, Calvert snow peas, King Tut, Clarke's Beltony Blue, Irish Prean soup peas, plus a cross from Nicky's garden from Sugar Magnolia, and a snow pea cross I found in my Amplissimo last year. And Sugar Magnolia itself for the snap!
Whew. That's 19 kinds of peas! Here they come....

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[bower]

This is a short pea about 2 ft tall, with small stout pods, and a maximum 4 peas per pod. Large, yellowish maple peas with a black hilum.
Earliest to flower at 40 days from planting (soaked seed), and flowered for 19 days; first dry pods harvested at 75 days from seed.
Flowers are a deep red, mostly borne in pairs. These pods have parchment so not an edible pod.

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[bower]

Two feet tall and very similar to Margaret McKee, but the flowers are a unique pale color, the pods are a bit larger, and the peas are a slightly more orange maple color. Same maximum of 4 peas per pod, but many had only one or two. Maybe the hot weather? These flowered two days later than McKee at 42 days from planting and finished after 17 days. I'm not sure if the weather was a factor since they both stopped at the same time.

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[bower]

This Capucijner is a somewhat taller plant about 3- 31/2 feet. The pods are a bit larger again, with as many as 5 large peas per pod. I really liked the growth habit of this one, because after reaching its full height it started to spout flowers at all the lower nodes. It was 47 days to the first flower, but it continued for a long time after, and was still making pods when the others had dried down. Peas are a squarish/cubish yellowish maple with a black hilum, again very similar to the two above.

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[bower]

This was among my later planted row of short peas, all of which began to flower around 44 days from seeding. It was looking to be prolific, wasting no time in setting flowers and pods low on the plant, but sadly fell prey to the moose so I only managed to scavenge a few seeds to try again. These pods have parchment so not an edible pod. Flowers a lovely warm red color. These pics taken of flowers sprouting from the ravaged stumps after being moosed. The peas are quite small and round, foxy maple. This is a classic soup pea for "mushy peas" as eaten in Britain; I don't know how yield compares (since they are quite small) but they filled their pods well and iirc had 6 or 7 in a pod, with the pods in pairs. They are the green pod next to purple pod Shiraz on the end in the pic.

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[bower]

This tall snow pea is interesting because the seeds are also that marbled color known as "maple". Flowering about 55 days from seed, I don't have great pics of the flowers on this trellis because it was so hot when they started at 50+ days, I think they must've opened at night and by the time I went to look, they were pushing out a pea. I had some confusion between this Brazilian and Corne de Belier as the few seeds were planted close together, and I wasn't sure which I had gotten pods of until the peas were dried. Corne de Belier either failed to produce or the pods were destroyed by moose munching. The flowers of Brazilian were very similar to Calvert with a strong magenta color in the standard.
Although these are said to be a good soup pea, I'm not sure that I would grow them for it - unless the flavor is out of this world. Not enough to taste, but they are quite small peas for the large investment in pods, and like many snow peas, Brazilian didn't bother to fill all the locules in that enormous pod. They were a nice enough snow pea but to my taste, not remarkable.

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[bower]

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Since I'm on the topic of a dual purpose snow pea and soup pea, may as well go straight to my favorite! Calvert flowered at 50 days and quickly grew up a nice set of crispy sweet beautiful pods. Definitely one of the best snow peas for fresh eating that I've ever tasted, as well as being early and prompt with the pods. I was on my way to take a pic of that beautiful pod load when I met the moose that beat me to it.
The pods that I did get were well filled and the peas are medium sized and an interesting blue speckled color, by reputation also good for soup, so these may really be an ideal dual purpose - if you can stop eating the fresh ones long enough to save some dry ones. Will definitely grow again my few seeds that I got.
Calvert is a tall pea but had lots of pods from about 3 ft upwards. Pic does not do justice to the intense magenta of the flowers.

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[Tormahto]

I wish I had a long cool spring so that I could get a decent crop of peas. I think I'll try a heavy mulch in the upcoming year. It worked wonders on my asparagus.

I once had a collection of about 100 varieties. In a few days I'll find out what's left of it. No moose, here. But, the deer are very close.

[worth1]

I wish I had a long cool spring so that I could get a decent crop of peas. I think I'll try a heavy mulch in the upcoming year. It worked wonders on my asparagus.

I once had a collection of about 100 varieties. In a few days I'll find out what's left of it. No moose, here. But, the deer are very close.

We have a long cool winter perfect for peas most of the time.
I never cook them and just eat them raw when I grow them.

[bower]

Our spring is too cold, but our summers are usually just the right temperature for peas. This was a hotter than normal year, so maybe not ideal. But in almost any year we can expect to get one crop of peas. I envy people who get two crops a year!

[bower]

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Kent Blue is another short pea - about 2 ft tall - flowering around 44 days, which is also a dual purpose snow and soup pea, with small, round, speckly peas. Fantastic growth habit with pairs of flowers bursting from every inch of the plant. Pods are narrow and small compared to the taller snow varieties. I tasted some immature pods and did not find them sweet. Didn't get to sample a more mature pod because by that time I had only a few to salvage for seed after moose.
I am planning to grow Kent Blue again and try a cross with Calvert, aiming to select a short stature plant with bigger, sweeter pods and peas.

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[Tormahto]

I wish I had a long cool spring so that I could get a decent crop of peas. I think I'll try a heavy mulch in the upcoming year. It worked wonders on my asparagus.

I once had a collection of about 100 varieties. In a few days I'll find out what's left of it. No moose, here. But, the deer are very close.

We have a long cool winter perfect for peas most of the time.
I never cook them and just eat them raw when I grow them.

For me, Super Sugar Snap is perfect raw, too sweet when cooked. I hear it has strings, but I've never noticed any.

[bower]

Shiraz is a purple snow pea, left side of the pic and next to Red Fox Carlin and Kent Blue - all the same height, with Tai Chung shooting up higher on the right. I grew these last year and didn't eat many because they fattened their pods so quickly, I hardly had a chance. A couple of the pods produced pure dark purple seeds, so I grew them this time, hoping to get a purple crop. The pods did not fatten quickly at all, but otherwise seemed about the same as last year - not very sweet as a snow although certainly pretty. I was really disappointed when the moose took the whole lot in one bite. There was not one pod left for me, and the plants were eaten right out of the ground. The seeds in the pic at the top are from last year - they do look big enough to me to be a soup pea, although too bad it's not a purple one. Will grow some of those 2020 seeds for soup next year and see how they taste.
My mom really liked Shiraz as a shelly pea but not as a snow.

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[Tormahto]

There are many Taichung peas. I've grown TC11 & TC13.

[bower]

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Since you mentioned snap peas I'll go straight to it. Only two this year. I agree about snaps being best raw. And the best peas for eating raw are sweet, in my books, the sweeter the better. First time growing Sugar Sprint, a tiny plant that bore its pods all over. I don't think it hit the two foot tall mark. But wow those small pods were absolutely sweet and completely stringless. There's a dwarfing gene, from what I read, that also makes them stringless.
These lovely small pods absolutely met my criteria for eating straight from the plant.

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[bower]

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Also had a few seeds of Sugar Magnolia, a purple snap. This was a slow growing plant about 4 ft tall, that flowered late cw others, and fattened its small pods painfully slowly...Maybe it hated the heat? I was finally disappointed that they weren't as sweet as I like, either.
I made a cross with Sugar Sprint though, and got a couple of F1 seeds to grow out. I guess anything that comes from those two should be fairly compact and a snap.

[bower]

There are many Taichung peas. I've grown TC11 & TC13.

I'd love to hear about them. I read some descriptions but couldn't figure out which one is the same as this numberless one from McKenzie Seeds.
This pea really impressed me for the amazing load of pods. I have to find a pic of the pods, will post that tomorrow if I can dig one up. Edited to add, so far there seems a gap between these early pods and "post moose". The image of bounty in my mind is the one I was about to take when... Long and narrow, well filled with 8 or 9 peas. Short internodes with a pod at every leaf, and a few of them survived moosing and kept going well into the fall.
I was not at first that crazy about the peas for taste, and the strings were really noticeable and tough when the pods got full sized, not a problem when immature though. I found them tasty enough though when there weren't so many others around, and was really glad of them. They made a fine snow pea for cooking either way, and worth it for the sheer volume. Plant was not too large at around 4 feet. What were yours like?

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Noting that the peas are smooth, which generally means they are starchy (vs wrinkled peas are sweet) so these might even make a soup pea of some kind. I'm definitely wanting to grow this again and use it for some crosses, for the really productive growth habit and pretty flowers.

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[bower]

King Tut is a tall soup pea with fairly large purple pods - I'm told it is not a good shelly so no dual purpose. But it was early flowering at 50 days and it pumped up the pods very quickly. So if it is a good soup pea, it would be worth the crop. Maybe more tolerant of heat than the others? IDK but it kept going until moose, and then valiantly produced a few late pods before croaking.

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[bower]

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Another purple podded pea for soup? This is a more compact plant at about 5 ft, with smaller but plentiful pods and large grey-green peas. It was among the earlier 'tall' peas flowering at 50 days, seemed very slow to fill its pods compared to the Tut but in the end produced pretty well in spite of that. Some report using this pea as a shelly, and some also complained it was 'starchy', so perhaps it is best for soup.

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[bower]

One of the main crop peas on the big trellises, it's also one of the few I've actually tasted as a soup pea... I LOVE these delicious peas. Have to have these on the shelf for winter. They are pretty late to flower at 55-56 days from seed. And they are insanely tall. 8 feet tall. So the peas are perfectly at moose mouth height and the plants are a moose mouthful. They did grow back and flower again but by that time there were more moose.
Anyhoo I have crossed them with Gold Harvest for a start, and got a couple of F1 peas to grow out.
I would really like to cross with Tai Chung because I could just see them with all those pods at four feet and lower. Red peas. Must have red peas.
These are "constricted pod" peas so technically a snow pea and could be eaten as such but it would defeat the purpose. Red peas.

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