Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi

My son loves mangetout and has begged me to grow it along with all our other veg. I got some Reuzensuiker peas but don't know much about them or mangetout growing.

Please can someone give me some advice/experience with these? How high do they grow? Any special care?

I was thinking of growing 3 plants. 1 in a container with my little marvel peas and will have to try and squeeze 2 amongst other veg in my 4ft x 4ft raised be.

Thanks
CADS

my hubby and son also love mange - tout.

I sowed early in tubes in feb, they went out late march. These are now producing. I sowed some in the ground about mid march allowing for mice. The mice didn't oblige so now I have a big mass of peas coming into flower. I have just put out some more (we really like mange-tout!)

The point I'm trying to make is

a) Very easy to grow

b) you will need more than 3 - try 15, up a tripod?

Jane

I think you grow them exactly like peas.

I started mine in module trays. I've got Oregon Sugar Pod and have half a dozen up a wigwam in my garden which are now about 3 foot high and starting to flower (we saw 2 pods on there today, very exciting) plus the rest of my 2 dozen up at the farm waiting to go in once I get a round tuit...

As a total mangetout beginner, they seemed pretty easy to me.

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

I grew them last year up a wigwam. They just needed a little help to get them to cling to the canes at first but then grew to about 4 foot high. I had ten plants and they gave a surprisingly large harvest. You must keep picking while they are young.

When the family got fed up with the things, we froze a load for over winter and let the rest grow onto full blown peas. These too were Oregon Sugar Pod.

Really easy!

I grow Oregon sugarpod too. Popular pea! I treat them just like 'ordinary' peas - they grow about 4ft tall and I support them in a row with that tough plastic netting and canes to hold that in place. I imagine your variety would respond to the same treatment but I don't know about the height. Have you tried putting the name in google?

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

I've got oregon sugarpod as well in the garden - glad they're there rather than the plot they are so prolific already (have about 10 plants in 4 loo roll tubes in the ground). Treat them like peas, give them something to climb up and enjoy.

Hi Cads,

Reuzensuiker mange-tout is suppose to reach to 90cm,white flower, heavy producer, and the mange-tout is suitable for freezer. The suggested spacing is 2,5cmX50cm.
Hope this help.

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

I grew mangetout for the first time last year. They were the purple podded ones, I think from Sarah Raven (I went shares with Serenity). Anyway, they were easy enough to grow and I left the last flush of pods to mature and dry in the hope I would be able to use them this year. I was really pleased when they stored pretty well and I had nearly 100% germination. the first flowers have opened today and I will save seed again this year.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I agree that they are easy to grow... I started mine off (12) in guttering in an unheated greenhouse on 9th March, all of them were up by 20th March, planted out 4th April (2 days before it snowed) and they have done marvellously. They are as tall as me (5' 2") and I have been harvesting since 31st May. They are "Golden Sweet" yellow podded from the Real Seed Catalogue and absolutely delicious.

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pjh75

We sow the seed, nature grows the seed, we eat the seed.

Thank you for your replies, everyone. Better go and sow a few more.
CADS

I hope you don't mind me hijacking this post, ut like PJH, I am also growing Golden Sweet. I'm growing them up wigwams, 8 canes to a wigwam. They're doing well, but I feel that I could have managed 2 peas per cane. If I could get my hands on some more would it be possible to add another to each cane?

Am growing Golden Sweet also, I have mine in a large pot growing up an inverted wigwam thing ie the canes splay outwards from the base rather than to a point at the top. They're over 5' tall and flowering (very prettily) freely. Small pods now forming and at the rate they're growing, they'll be ready to eat in about a week's time. Am hoping that they taste as good as other varieties I've had in the past and that the yellowness doesn't put me off!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Alison, would I be able to sow another pea at each station then? There's plenty of space.

We've got very overcrowded peas and they are thriving - lots of flowers and pods even thoug the frame seems overwhelmed with the plants... the mangetout aren't so vigorous yet as they were sown later, but my guess would be that you could get 2-3 plants per cane easily.

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

Can you mix and match with Mange Tout? I don't have any Mange Tout seeds left but I have some other beans and peas started in modules that I could use to fill in the spaces/increase the crop. What would work best?

I don't see any reason why you can't mix and match - I've grown different types of beans on the same wigwam in the past. The only problem is that if you mix peas and mange tout then it can be very difficult to work out which is which when you pick them. Also, not so good from a point of view of seed saving - all very confusing.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I would think since you are growing a yellow-podded mangetout it would be fairly easy to identify those from a regular green or even a purple-pod variety.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Ah, good point - was just thinking of the other year when, although I planted peas and mange tout separately, as I didn't label, I couldn't remember until I tried them!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?