:) You should feel complimented- obviously these are birds with refined taste! Birds need to eat a little greenery just as we do- at least that's what I read in captive bird-keeping articles. So maybe they are satisfying their need with your peas? Your local birds might have discovered your pea vines by accident, but decided that they liked them! Birds' diets can change dramatically when they are feeding young. The nesting season should be winding down by the end of summer, so maybe your fall crop will be OK? All of this is assuming that you've ruled out them feeding on aphids on the peas, of course! :) As Zeedman said, they will likely remember where they got this food next year and come back to check. Maybe some pie plates hanging so they flash and bang in the breeze? Or maybe some 30% shade cloth (recommended in the fruit forum as being superior to bird netting in every way)draped over the vines once the birds show up again? Or Veggiefaery's very satisfying sounding super-soaker... Good luck! Sunni

F Y I Pidgeon Pea Also know as: Congo pea, Guandu, No-eye pea, Red gram, Arhur, Grandul, Dhal, Toor, Grinds pea, Puerto Rico pea, Urhur, Pigeon Pea, Feijao Guandu, Adhaki, Chieh Tu Tzu, Chieh Tu, Gandul, Guaduli, Guandul, Pois Cajan, Pois Congo, Pois D'Angolie, Shan Tou Ken, Kachang gude, Kachang kayu (tree bean), Katjang bali, frijol de palo. Scientific Name: Cajanus cajan. Common name: 'Pigeon Pea'. The pigeon pea is a well known perennial leguminous shrub with yellow and red flowers. It can grow into a small tree. It's history goes back at least 3000 years with it's origin most likely being Asia. From there it traveled to Africa and then to the American continent by means of the slave trade. Today pigeon peas are widely cultivated in all tropical and semi-tropical regions of world and is valuable as a food crop (dried peas, flour, or green vegetable peas) and a forage/cover crop Easy to grow from seeds and is easily cared in the garden or landscape. Pigeon peas contain more minerals, up to 5 times the vitamins A and C of green peas and an excellent source of protein and calcium. The young green pods can be eaten as vegetables. Mature pigeon peas can be dried and used as a pulse, made into flour, sprouted or boiled and eaten with rice or in soups or curries. As a legume, its cultivation enriches the soil through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Pigeon peas are often inter-cropped or used in rotation with other crops as they add nutrients to the soil. It is an excellent feed for cattle, pigs and poultry. It can also be utilized as an ongoing source of mulch and can be cut several times in a season. Lou

I am new here...from Kenya, the land of all famous runners and lately the Obama craze! [lol] I am currently working on a project that will entailed trials for inoculant on various types of legumes and will be glad to share the information once it is out...but one thing I will let all forum members know is that just as Zeedman said..because of the fact that these bacteria are not indigenous to our soils, there is need to introduce then so as to boost the ability of the legume to absorb nitrogen. Furthermore the use of fertilizers mostly phosphate based, are basically to improve on root development which in the end will help in absorption of Nitrogen,therefore the use of the inoculant will help out the legume in that way...help in root growth, at the end development....then growth and subsequent yield. Inoculant not only does the above to the legume, but also cuts down on the cost of fertilizer use. In this age and era where we are moving to eating healthy and organic food...I think this is the way to go!

Mark, I can answer a few of your questions and I am attaching OSU Fall Garden Guide to help you with the planting times. The garden guide will work in reverse for the fall with those in the northern part of the state using the early date and those in the south the later one, which is just the opposite of what we do with the Spring Guide. I am attaching the guide because I do not have experience with growing peas in the fall. They are one of my favorite Spring crops but this year we got beat out of a couple of weeks of production by the weather. For that reason, I thought I might try to grow a few in the fall also. Your son has good taste in food if he eats peas by the bag. You will get a kick out of Diane's blog to see the result of Josie discovering that the peas were gone. It is called "The End of the World" and this is the link. http://agweb.okstate.edu/fourh/aitc/lessons/extras/facts/fallgarden.pdf Question 1 Yes, it's too late, and it's also too early, so just gather up your seeds and wait. Question 2 Since I don't know where you are, I can't answer that one, but you should be able to make a decision by using the OSU guide. I normally direct seed my peas but everything loves a sprouting pea so if you have a heavy wildlife problem, especially squirrels, you might want to think about that one. Leaves are edible, but the birds and squirrels seem to be most interested in the sprouted seed. 3. No predators for mine except the ones described in 2 above. Wind is an enemy tho, so make sure they are secured to something. 4. I plant peas and beans in regular garden soil, but I do add compost at planting time, but nothing after that. Peas are like beans and I would think if they needed anything extra it would be an innoculant made especially for peas. I never see that in stores but if you order your seeds a lot of the on-line companies have it. 5. I guess the answer is yes and no. I wouldn't call any that I have grown bush, but there are some shorter ones available. They all like to climb but they are relunctant to cling to anything other than another pea vine so you have to give them a little help. I will list what I grew this year: Mamouth Melting Sugar - These grew about two and half to three feet tall and I grew them on a chain link fence. The taste was OK but they are better picked young, in the flat pod stage. So while these are great for adding to a wok of stir fry, they were not my favorite for eating out of hand. Cascadia - These grew to about 3 feet high on teepees. I had some soft plastic tripod caps from Lee Valley Tools and I fed three pieces of 3/8 inch rebar into the openings and pushed the other end into the ground, then wound string around from rebar to rebar. They were very sturdy and worked out OK as long as I made sure the peas were secured by the string. The taste of this pea was very good, put I had to pick it right on time or the pod starting to separate from the peas. This didn't seem hurt the taste and as long as the pea was used whole wouldn't be much of an issue. Sugar Snap - I normally grow Sugar Snap only, but this year I was glad I had other choices because it didn't produce as well as it has in other years. This is a great tasting pea but I discovered by growing others along with it that I had been eating peas for over a week before this one started producing. This will grow to 5-6 feet tall and needs a good place to climb. Super Sugar Snap - This was the best pea I grew this year. It was productive and the taste was wonderful. I grew it on a cattle panel and weaved it through as it grew and sometimes added a small garden clip to make sure it would not blow over in the wind. I'm just really partial to vegetables that I can pick standing up and I feel that since growing upward gives more vine to produce on, yet still uses the same footprint in the valuable garden space below, that tall plants are the way to go. Although there was nothing wrong with the short peas, I prefer the tall ones. Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Gardening