Here imp, I'm looking for fun peas to grow too in this cold! Spring is still months away..
Green Arrow – midseason; wrinkled seed; 24- to 28-inch vine; 41⁄2-inch pods; 9 to 11 peas per pod; resistant to downy mildew and fusarium wilt; 68 days.
Little Marvel – First Early. 62 days, old variety; wrinkled seed; 15-inch vines; early; 3-inch pod; 6 to 8 peas per pod; dark green pea; round, tender, sweet and fine flavor. Unsurpassed by any others in its class. Good for
freezing and canning.
Thomas Laxton – 81 days. Large bright green high sugar content, excellent quality. 6 to 8 peas per pod. Pods are about 31/2 inches long. Wilt tolerant. Excellent for home and market.
Knight – 62 days. High yields, tight pods. 7-9 peas per pod, about 4". Good disease tolerance to pea enation mozaic virus, powdery mildew, bean yellow mosaic virus.
Amish Snap – 60 days. Grown in Amish communities long before present day snap peas. Vines grow to 5-6ft. Heavy producers of 2” curved sickle-shaped pods with 4-7 peas per pod. Bears for over a long 6 week period, if kept well picked. Delicate and sweet, superb flavor…even when the seeds develop. A crisp “eat-it-all” pea variety. Pods were medium- sized, heavy, tough & wrinkled with 5 to 6 seeds in most. Sweetness dissipated with age.
Carter’s Daisy or Dwarf Telephone (1880’s) – Highly productive. 75 days. A variety of great popu- larity. Has attractive pods 5 inches long and well filled with 8 to 10 peas of excellent quality. The plants grow 18 inches tall and bear a great abundance of broad, well-rounded, pointed pods.
Champion of England – a variety said to come into its own in England in 1843. Pods are fairly long, each containing easily up to 10 peas. Dry seeds are weird…oblong, green and only slightly wrinkled. 75 days.
Progress #9 (a.k.a. Laxton's Progress #9, Greater Progress, and Blue Bantam) –
58-65 days. A leading large-podded, home garden, heirloom variety. Its vigorous dark-green plants produce 4"-5" pods with 6-9 large, wrinkled dark-green peas. It is an early producer with consistently heavy yields. Dwarf vines grow to 15-20 in., needs no staking and is easy to grow. Great flavor and quality. Resistant to wilt and fusarium rot. This variety originally developed in Britain.
Pioneer – This flavorful shell pea produces plenty of 3–4 inches pods bearing 6–9 peas each on compact 20–24 inches vines. Easy to shell for side dishes, salads, or freezing. Plant early in the spring to harvest before the summer heat sets in. Staking is optional. Resists mildew.
Kelvedon Wonder – 75 days. (also known as First Early) Super-early dwarf variety reaches only about 18" tall, requiring no staking. Highly recommended for successive sowings: also a great variety for container planting or cold-frame growing. Produces heavy crops of sweet,small peas, often eight per pod; typically yields two fat pods per node. Resistant to pea wilt and downy mildew.
Wando – 70 days, heat resistant. Pods are 2-1/2 to 3″ long, dark green, straight, blunt, borne both singly and in pairs. Each pod contains 8 to 10 good quality, dark green and wrinkled peas.
Spring – 52-57 days. A very early variety, developed for commercial freezing. The Spring Garden Pea sets 5-7 pods each plant, with 3 in. pods bearing 6-8 medium-sized peas. Dark-green, wrinkled peas are of excellent quality. Plants are fast growing and reach about 18-22". Disease Resistance: Fusarium Wilt (Race 1).
Spanish Sky Scraper – 91 days. Best for its peas where the pods are short and the peas inside are large. The yield is heavy, with 6 to 7ft tall vines. Pods are 2 1/2 – 3 ” long, with 6 to 8 peas within. Flowers are white. Dried pods are super smooth, and moderately easy to shell. Seeds are semi-wrinkled. Disease resistant.
Alderman or Tall Telephone Shell Pea – 85 days. Long vines reach up to 6 feet with support, and large pods yield 8-10 peas each. The peas are large in size, being sweet and tender. This popular garden favorite was introduced in 1881 and is still a standard with many. A late-maturing variety.
Early Onward – English pea. A heavy cropping second early. Excellent flavor and very sweet.
Beagle (or Hurst Beagle) – English pea. The earliest wrinkled variety. Blunt ended pods, eight peas per pod.
Tom Thumb – (aka Thomb Thumb, aka Pois Nain Hatif ) Pre-1800’s from Europe. A frame-pea, grown in olden times in cold frames for extra early production. An adorable little dwarf, growing only to 10” tall. Production began from ground level right to the top. Perfect for small spaces and an excellent container grower. Pods contain 5-7 peas which are rather large compared to most other early frame varieties. Dried pods were super smooth, flattish and easy to shell. Seeds were green and quite wrinkled.
Large Manitoba – more dwarf than Tom Thumb…a mere 9” tall, but the leaves and the pods of the plants are gigantic (4″ x 1″) compared to its height. Dry pea seeds are large, wrinkled and green. A definite early dwarf bush variety. Rare.
Hurst Green Shaft - A popular UK heirloom, it is vigorous and reliable, with 10 peas per pod. Resistance to downy mildew and fusarium wilt. One of the tastiest with exceptional sweet flavor. Shell type. It crops heavily towards the tops of the plants (so picking is easy). 12-16 weeks from initial sowing.
Sugar Snap “Lace” – A semi-leafless snap pea with moderately long string-less pods, mildew resistant. 18″ tall plants (with white flowers) produce tons of tendrils that fasten to anything in sight. Pods, once dried, become wrinkled and tough to shell, offering 4 to 5 seeds per. Best used as a fresh veggie.
Oregon Giant Sugar Pod – Semi-wrinkled seed lacks the bitterness associated with some edible podded varieties so you can safely pick these a little plumper and more mature.