yngfireman, There are a great many types of southern peas and even more sub-varieties. Most are used as dry peas. In my area there are two that are used fresh (indicated by the snaps). For the one pictured on the can that you linked, my guess would be they are Mississippi Silver. In my opinion, an even better fresh pea is the Pink Eye Puplehull, which comes in several sub-varieties. Keep in mind that these peas require a longer cooking time than most bean type vegies.

Is there a website or email group that continues with this thread: I've read this thread both here and in the frugal forum, and since I noticed the person in the frugal forum really wanted the thread to stop, and both have been inactive for a few years... I imagine folks don't want to restart here, but I'm interested in a handful of plants, not mentioned here, that I imagine could be grown from pieces of grocery store vegetables, like: a. broccoli from a bit of stalk? b. belgian endives from their stalks( since lettuce and cabbage work from their stalk)? c. kale, collard, mustard greens that don't end in just a leaf tip, but are still connected, thus have about a 1/2 inch to an inch of stalk --would that grow? d. how about brussel sprouts bought on their stalk, would the stalk grow brussels if planted? e. will a turnip or rutabega root grow if you plant the greens with 1/2 inch of stalk, or even if you just plant that course stalk with no greens? Again, I'm just listing my curiousities here, but I don't expect the thread to be reopened and my questions answered, --I'd just like to be referred to a website or email list that specificly focuses on this if you found out about one. Thanks, ~Diana

I got them transplanted today - not all of them, I ran out of room, but 66. The germination rate, if no more actually come up, was 65 percent. The plants were somewhat root bound, but not completely. I need to pick up some more seeds and try the 128-cell tray. Transplanting was not difficult, even though I did not have a hoe handy to make a furrow. I would have to keep moving but if I get the moisture content of the potting mix right and the roots are larger, I think I could plant 200-300 per hour. It would still be a 2-6 hour day, depending on how close and quickly I plant them. These had to be about 4" as the space was only about 10 feet. Now the challenge is going to be keeping the temps down, at least during the afternoon. It's 48 outside and the sun is low on the horizon, but it is 87 inside. But, it was over 100 before I got the blanket off so maybe the temps would not be that high. Plus, I have a fan I can use to move air. Mike

Susan, Glad you finally got a pea to taste. I use innoculants sporadically but not often. I'll use one if I am planting peas or beans in an area where no legumes have been grown in recent years. Otherwise, the rhizobia tends to be there in the soil already. Whether to freeze or refrigerate the seed is your choice. I don't do it because of space considerations. If you do choose to keep it in a freezer or refrigerator, be sure it is in an air-tight container. I have found that all home-grown peas are infinitely better than any you buy at the store---there is no comparison between the two. That's why I grow so many veggies---because fresh, locally-grown veggies taste like veggies. The produce purchased at the grocery store is grown long distances away and shipped so it is several days old by the time you get it and the quality (and nutrient content) decreases every day. Sometimes you can find snap peas at Farmer's Markets that really are locally grown and fresh, but even they tend not to be quite as fresh and tasty as home-grown. They show general heat stress....browning, yellowing or fading of the leaves' normally lovely color. They stop blooming or the blooms stop forming into peas. The plants can go from looking pretty good to looking pretty bad practically overnight when the heat arrives. You do have to plant a lot of seed/plants to get an appreciable amount of peas. I plant 4 packets of seed in the spring and 4 packets in the fall in order to grow all we can eat fresh and have plenty left over to freeze and I tend to plant tall types that get 5' to 8' tall because they produce more peas per square foot for me than dwarf peas. I have found freshly-picked and freshly-frozen sugar snap peas are tastier than frozen sugar snap peas purchased at the grocery store. In a good season (and good is relative because we usually get too hot too early in spring and stay too hot too late in fall), I expect 20-40 lbs. of peas from my long pea bed. Tim and I eat all we get and could eat more if I could grow more, but even in our large garden, there's only so much space I'll give to something whose production is 'iffy'. Some years it gets very hot very early and we get nothing. That's a risk you face in planting many of the cool-season crops in a region like ours where the cool season can be incredibly brief. Peas are interesting. Even the ones touted as 'mildew-resistant' sometimes get PM and some of the ones not touted as 'mildew-resistant' seem to be quite resistant any way. When the taller ones yield well, they yield incredibly well. I've never been as happy with the yield on the small ones....and I give the smaller ones a 3' tall chicken-wire trellis to climb anyway. I feel like they do better when they have something other than each other to climb. For the fall, sow your seed in mid-August to early September and expect to begin harvesting, more or less, two months after the peas sprout. It is very weather dependant. For other fall planting dates and row spacing, etc. I've linked the OSU Fall Planting Guide. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Gardening Guide