support sugar snap peas

[Jane]

Anyone out there grow sugar snap peas? What do you use to support the vines? We have used string between 5 foot metal poles but the vines top that and wind around each other then break off at the top in moderate wind. Any suggestions?

We have had excellent yield in the spring and moderate in the fall in Ohio.

Another question: Our zucchini was doing great last summer until the squash bugs hit. These are the brown ones which lay rust colored eggs on the underside of the leaves, not the vine borer insects. Anyone have any luck dealing with these brown bugs that destroyed the zucchini and the cantaloupe?

Thanks, Jane

[Al]

Jane wrote in news:zcKBf.45654$ [e-mail]:

I grow sugar snap peas and love them. If you do not pick them too early, they develop a real sweetness. For support I use concrete reinforcing wire (mesh). They are 8 feet long, 6 feet high with 6 inch squares.

[Kathy]

I love sugar snap peas. I grow peas - both kinds - on tomato cages. My portable wire cages are nearly 4 feet high, about the right size for the peas I grow. I park the cages in the main garden in February and plant peas in circles around their bases. In July, when the peas quit, I strip the vines off and move the cages to the tomato bed just before the tomatoes grow too big to be caged. The system works like a charm and saves me from all the work I used to do with building and tearing down a pea trellis each year.

[Sue]

I hadn't thought of using the wire cages for peas. What a good idea. Thanks. Sue

[simy1]

like the other poster, I use rebar. The rebar is in sections 20 ft long, fashioned like a tunnel (it doubles as under cover gardening in the cold season). It is a bit of a nuisance to pick the peas early in the season, if the vines are too low, it is best to pick from outside the tunnel. But eventually they reach the top of the tunnel and beyond, and you can comfortably pick standing inside (a 20ft section is just above 6 feet at its highest). If you plant them and then beans in succession you will have a continuous part-shade site for your cabbages to spend the summer in.

[George]

I think some ppl get better yield than us. All we do for sugar snaps is drive metal fence posts, leaving 4' above ground, maybe 10' apart; and then string twine between them, maybe ever 1' or so vertically.

I really love the idea of the rebar tunnel, though. Maybe someday.

George

[Richard]

Jane wrote in news:zcKBf.45654$ [e-mail]:

When I grew the original Sugar Snap peas I used concrete reinforcing mesh (6 foot tall, 6 x 6 mesh), supported with poles made from the weed trees that grew up the narrow strip between the garage and the fence (free material). Now I grow the shorter vining snap pea varieties (Sugar Ann or Sugar Mel) and use a 3-foot fence.

site covers organic and sustainable methods of pest control. The first line of defense is secured row covers from planting until flowering starts, along with newspaper and hay mulches. And from personal experience, I would say they don't like vines growing on light colored concrete very well - last year I only found large clusters of them on the vines in the garden and individuals or small clusters on the vines growing out over the patio.

Richard

[Jane]

Thanks for all the replies on support for the peas. Also the site you sent, Richard, has plenty of useful information.

Thanks, Jane

[Glenna Rose]

That sounds very much like the cattle panels I use a couple of places in my garden, usually available wherever livestock fencing is sold. They are

18 x 4 feet with 6" x 8" openings, cost a bit under $20 each. They are heavy gauge but can be curved for a tunnel. One is a tunnel and the other is just upright.

They should last forever, at least my lifetime.

I've planted Sun Gold tomatoes on the tunnel which was great, picking from the inside as well as outside. The upright was perfect for cucumbers, etc.

It would be an easy matter to cover it with heavy plastic for a temporary greenhouse/hothouse early in the season (or late to extend growing).

Glenna

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