A review of English pea performance this year

This year, I am growing 2 varieties of English peas in my garden. English peas are the kind that you have to remove from the pod, as opposed to snap peas or snow peas, which are eaten pod and all.

The two varieties I planted this year are "Little Marvel" and "Green Arrow."

Little Marvel - This cultivar was introduced in England in 1908. It's a dwarf pea. Mine grew to be between 24 and 30 inches tall. The vines were sturdy, but I would still recommend growing them on some sort of a trellis or fence. I planted them in February as soon as the ground could be worked. I saw blooms in April and started harvesting peas in May.

The biggest pod size is about 3 inches long, but many are smaller. The pods are very thick and tend to swell after a rain, so it can be difficult to tell when they're ready to pick. I have picked several large pods only to discover very tiny peas inside. The pods average having 5 or 6 peas inside, which are very sweet. Pea output has been good, considering that this is a dwarf pea. It would take a lot of these, though, to be enough for more than one or two meals - enough for freezing or canning, in other words.

I haven't noticed any real disease problems with this pea, but I have noticed that it's been susceptible to aphid attacks. This was cured by spraying on homemade insecticidal soap.

Green Arrow - This is a later pea than Little Marvel. These were planted 2 weeks after the Little Marvels were planted. At first I didn't think these peas were going to sprout at all, but eventually they did. Vines are up to 36 inches tall and they definitely need a fence or trellis.

Since it's a later variety, I'm just now seeing good blooming from the plants, but I'm also harvesting pods from the initial blooms, which came out a couple of weeks after the Little Marvels started blooming.

Often Green Arrow pods grow in pairs, but sometimes they also grow as single pods. The pods are 6-7 inches long and they don't have the tendency to swell like the Little Marvels do. When the peas are forming, it's easy to look at and feel the pod to judge the pea size and maturity. I have no trouble identifying which peas are ready and have not picked any immature peas by mistake with this variety.

The pods are longer, so the pea yield is higher - 8-12 peas per pod. These peas are also sweet.

I have not noticed aphids growing on these peas. I also don't see any evidence of disease on the vines.

The verdict: If you're looking for the most "bang for the buck," then Green Arrow is the pea for you.

The flavor of both of these peas is about the same - equally sweet and tender.

The only strikes I have against Little Marvel is the toughness and swell tendencies of the pods - it makes it harder to tell when the peas are truly ready to pick. And I don't like that it's a dwarf variety (I didn't know that when I bought the seed) - it naturally delivers a smaller quantity.

I plan to plant peas again this fall (around August 10th, so we can harvest before first frost), and I'll more than likely be planting Green Arrow peas.