Once we start having days above 80 degrees- and especially having our Santa Ana winds, my peas start turning yellow from the bottom first. The "younger" your pea plants are, the more this warm dry air will affect them. (Older plants can take a little heat.) Two years ago, my fall peas were so good that I decided to plant a "spring" crop in February. But they struggled, turned yellow, then brown - I got some flowers but never any peas. I had to pull them up in April. (They don't last from year to year.) So this year, I just planted twice as many in October. If you are looking for some greenery on your patio, how about a tomato plant or some rosemary. They are both hardy. And if your balcony is protected, the rosemary is perennial. (Sometimes we can even get a tomato to last the winter to here!) hope this helps.

I plant Green Arrow peas and I "hill" the soil up as the peas grow and mulch heavily. This keeps the soil cooler and gives me a longer harvest time. I also shade my peas in the heat. I found I get more out of the one crop than planting a spring and fall crop. The only problem is the weeds tend to get pretty fierce as the summer progresses. Last year I picked the first of the peas, July 3rd and the last of the spring crop of peas, Aug. 13th. The last harvest was almost 2 lbs in the shell from 4-12' rows. Totally harvest of shelled peas was over 6 lbs (about 18 lbs. in the shell). I could have kept them going with diminished harvest but I wanted the space for some beets and carrots.

Hey Tom: Thanks for posting the link to this thread. Very helpful indeed, and your garden is gorgeous, healthy and thriving. I must get some cattle panel--wonder how I'm going to fit it in my Mini Cooper! I've also had good luck making our Serious Tomato Cages using cow fencing. Finally, we have mater cages that are tall enough and strong enough to actually support the heirloom tomatoes that get over 8 feet tall. It's fun to think of and share creative ways to use products like cattle panel for the garden, isn't it? What else have folks used that works well? Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Cowlick Cottage Farm

I plan to do exactly what you describe but it is too early for me to plant pole beans of the P vulgaris type. However, we did plant peas right on top of the fall pole beans and that worked great (I posted a couple pictures on the other pea thread, but those are in zone 10). Both the beans and peas were healthy though. Now, are you sure you have a 'disease' or is it just the natural life cycle of the peas? which zone 9 are you in? they do not like heat at all, have you had a bit of a hot spell? then browning leaves would be normal, no disease to worry about. Maybe someone else has experience in our zones and can give us advice. I have cool springs and hellishly hot autumns (usually) so I'll be planting beans later.