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

Hi daimonic, Are the 20 X 8 X 8 boxes youre talking about planting the peas in window box type boxes? 20" long by 8" wide and deep? Thats not going to be a lot of soil for planting something like peas in, but if you use a good quality mix, you may be able to do it. If you have Hyponex, I real seriously recommend you go out and buy something else. I had always heard that Hyponex was no good, but until I read your link, I never knew it has sedge peat in it. Thats pretty much equivalent to planting something in sludge. Since you dont have much space and wont be able to plant very much, you want to do everything you can to be sure what you can put in does well, and having good soil is the most important thing you can do to be successful. You should be able to buy good potting soils in large bags at any "real" garden center," and its usually not all that expensive. And youll be able to use it over and over, so its not like wasted money. I use Sunshine Mix for everything, which I buy by the bale at a garden center. A bale can last 2 to 3 years, and I think it cost something between $20 and $30. But a couple big bags should be plenty for you. Sunshine has all different kinds of mixes that they sell in bales, and Im not sure what they sell in bags, but Im sure whatever it is, its a good, basic mix that will work for pretty much anything. The reason you need a "good" mix is because roots need both water and oxygen. With a mix that has sedge peat in it, it will stay saturated, excluding the oxygen, and the roots will rot. A good mix, with a lot of Canadian sphagnum peat will hold the moisture, but allow excess water to drain off. Analogize it to a sponge! If you saturate it and lay it on the edge of something, the extra water will run out of it, but it will stay wet. Thats what you want your potting mix to do. I think you mentioned up above that you have the trays that go under your boxes. DONT use them. If theres water standing in them, the soil will also stay saturated. With such a small volume of soil, youll probably need to water them every, or at least every other day, but thats a completely different animal than keeping the "saucer" full of water. And the heat could definitely be a problem. Thats why I was suggesting putting them where theyd get the morning sun if you can. Afternoon sun is going to heat them up a lot more, and since the boxes are above ground and exposed to ambient temperatures, theyre already going to be warmer than something planted in the ground. Anything you can do to insulate the soil from the heat, or reflect the sun away from it will help some. Regarding the phosphorus, the easiest way to quickly add phosphorus is to use a "blossom booster" fertilizer. If youre not familiar with fertilizers, they all have an "analysis" on the package. Thats 3 numbers somewhere on the package that tell you how much of what nutrients are in that particular fertilizer. The middle number is the amount of phosphorus. Phosphorus is the stuff that promotes blooms, and, subsequently, fruit and seeds. Nitrogen is the stuff that promotes lots of green foliageandI can never remember exactly what good potash isbut it is!!! (Im sure some of the chemists around here will have something to add about potash!) Since potting mixes dont contain ANY fertilizer (unless you buy one that has some added), youll probably need to use something, and, as far as Im concerned, using a water soluble fertilizer is the easiest way to do it. So buy a small package of any "high middle number" fertilizer that you can dissolve inusually a gallon ofwater, and water the peas with it. I use 20-20-20 for everything! I like things simple! ;-) And for most of my life I used Peters brand, but then Peters was bought out by MiracleGro and (wonder of wonders) the quality deteriorated, so "Peter," who had sold his companyand his nameto MiracleGro, started to make his original product againthis time calling it Jacks! So now I buy Jacks! When it was Peters, he used to have different formulations, including a blossom booster, but Im not sure if Jacks does or notif you can find it, I recommend it. If you cant, get almost any brandexcept MiracleGro! MiracleGro falls pretty much into the same category as Hyponex in my opinion. I dont know that using this type of phosphorus would be anymore "effective" than bone meal, but its simple to use, and faster acting than bone meal. (As Steve says, you want it sooner than in the next decade!) Heres a blurb about fertilizer formulations I copied: What do the numbers really mean? The first thing to understand when selecting fertilizers is the chemical composition code labeled on the container. These numbers are almost always listed as a sequence of 3 numbers, such as 30-10-10, or 10-50-10. NITROGEN (N) - The first number in the sequence specifies the nitrogen content of the fertilizer. and is given as a percentage. Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth in plants. PHOSPHORUS (P) - The second number in the sequence specifys the phosphorus content of the fertilizer. Phosphorus promotes flowering. Fertilizers labeled with disproportionately high amounts of phosphorus are sometimes labeled as "bloom booster". SOLUBLE POTASH (K) - The third number in the chemical sequence referrs to % soluble potash, K2O, contained in the fertilizer. A fertilizer labeled as 30-10-10 would contain 30% nitrogen, 10% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would generally be used during a plants active growth cycle. While a fertilizer labeled as 10-50-10, would contain 10% nitrogen, 50% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would typically be used prior to and during a plants blooming season. How are your peas doing? Be sure you leave them outside, unprotected for a couple nights before you actually plant them into the boxes. Have fun, Skybird P.S. Stop apologizing for asking questions! Thats what RMG is here for! :-)

"And recently we actually shocked a cashier with all of our fruits and vegetables"! "Last summer while I was shopping the produce mgr passed by, looked in my cart and said, "No produce??" in a mock horrified way." "When I got to the checkout, the clerk commented that I had all "fun" stuff in my cart." "Any checkout clerk that makes a comment about what's in my cart other than "hmm, that looks good, have you tried it before?" gets a good case of the hairy eyeball. Ring up the blasted groceries and cork it, twinkie." Clerks are suppose to be trained not to comment on the purchases of customers. They would get more than just a hairy eyeball from me. I remember well the clerk who surveyed my load of veggies and cheese, who exclaimed with shock and disdain "Do you eat this stuff?!?!?!" I told her "No. Of course not. I am using this for a tablescape. My trunk is filled with Hot Pockets and Ding Dongs." I think she went deaf after I said it loud enough to embarrass her in front of everybody. I recently had a customer in line right behind me who LOUDLY proclaimed "Lady don't you think you're taking this vegetarianism too far?!?" when he scanned my load of fruits veggies and cheese on the check-out conveyor. I really blasted him because it was none of his business what I was buying. He wanted to make me look like some kook who didn't know that I should be buying what "everyone else buys" because that is what the television commercials tell us to buy - Popscicles, Fritos, GummieBears, oh and 'power drinks' to keep from feeling "run down" from a poor diet. (And BTW I am not a vegetarian. I just don't buy my meat at that particular store.) "Simple fact is that soda, chips, candy, hot dogs, sugary cereal, frozen pizza, white breads and anything made with corn, are the cheapest things to buy." That is absolutely not true at all. It is NOT a "simple fact". Soda has zero nutritional value just like plain water. If you wish to "quench your thirst" - Drink water. The cheapest things to buy are always going to be unprocessed foods. Things like dried legumes, and cruciferous vegetables, grains. Fruits and berries 'in season' are reasonably priced. Buy canned when they are out of season, and it is still better than buying CANDY BARS. Paying a buck-fifty for a candy bar for lunch, is not the cheaper option. You were kidding about the candy bars, right? Instead of eating potato chips, just cook a potato. Waaaay cheaper, and a microwaved potato will retain most of the vitamin C and nutrition. You can buy ten pound of potatoes for what one little bag of chips cost. Hot dogs are $3.99/lb in the store. You can instead buy decent meat for that price. You can get chicken for $.79/lb and even taking into account the bones in the weight you are still better off both monetarily and healthwise. Sugary cereal is cheaper than a bowl of cooked oatmeal?? Your kidding right?

For one, are you absolutely certain that what you bought were in fact Sugar Snaps? Snap peas are meant to be eaten pods and all and they do not shell out as easily as regular peas. I find it doubtful one would take the time to do that just to sell them. The person they were bought from could have been using some creative marketing. As for the store bought peas, they sure look like young snap peas to me. They could have been left to grow a few more days and their lack of flavor is probably due to them being picked well before you bought them. Fresh peas, of any type, will taste better freshly picked as their flavor dimishes quickly after harvest. Rodney