Sounds like Fusarium rot or maybe Pythium rot, or both. Maybe a pic would help some.

Ah. Fusarium rot looks right- i google image searched it and thats exactly how my peas look- bummer. Funny it is affecting the peas but not the chard which live in the same container. I'm afraid my tomatoes might have had that too this past summer as they turned yellow from the bottom up also and eventually died at the end of the season, but they gave me fruit first- the peas just got about 2 feet tall and then died. Any suggestions for how to remedy this? I can't save the plants but I'm guessing anything I plant in there in the future will be affected unless I do something?

Different strains of fusarium infect different crops, but in warm climates it's common to see multiple strains. A lot of tomato varieties are resistant, ditto with peas. In one past garden, I absolutely had to have F-resistant tomatoes, but could slide with peas. Hopefully the fungi were only in your container soil and not in your garden.

Thinking about it more it could just be too hot for them now- the ones that are doing better get more shade but the sad ones get more sun & it gets hotter in that spot. Or could be a combo of fusarium & heat perhaps. We had a heat wave a few weeks ago and starting into another this week- day temps in the 70s & 80s. I guess that's Southern California gardening for you- blessed with the ability to do year round gardening but true cool season crops do poorly and there's no cold period to kill off diseases & pests. I'll try to get some pictures & see if that can help diagnose the issue.

Oh no just noticed the ones that were doing ok before are starting to look bad now too! Here are some photos- what does it look like to you??

Here's another

Close up

So sad - they were doing well just a few days ago

In your other thread, you said that you had some hot weather recently. As I said there, heat shuts down peas.

I'd still go with Fusarium wilt on these. I've had the same problems in years past. The fungus is very persistent in the soil. The symptoms usually show up after the weather warms up and the peas are close to bloom. Maybe there are some resistant varieties of pea, but if so probably only to one of the many Fusarium races. You may want to look into that. I just stopped growing peas in that spot in the garden and other crops do fine there.

I gave up on peas years ago-they always looked just like that, plus a white powdery look too.
The one and only time I got a few peas I tasted them and have never forgotten how good raw fresh peas are.
If I could get past those issues I'd try again.

Hmm maybe it's a 9b thing then.
Fortunately my Mr. Big Peas (shelling peas not edible pod) variety is doing well still- hopefully they can survive the heat and/or fusarium. We shall see... They just started flowering and are looking pretty happy. Fingers crossed!

Those look good. Good luck and mail me some if you get any ! : )

It may be fusarium, but I might go with powdery mildew. Since I'm in SoCal also, mine look like that usually in may or so when it starts to warm up. I started planting snow peas in late Oct/Nov and that way I get some very nice harvest from Jan- April. Now that I understand Powdery mildew a bit more, I bet I can get them to go until late June, in the future.

I'm not growing them this year... water shortage. But with the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, I can see Powdery mildew showing up in peas this early.

JMO

Kevin

If you're still curious you could cut the affected stems (and roots) and look at the vascular tissue. Sometimes you'll see a yellow or orange discoloration inside with Fusarium wilt. It's the soil temp warming into the 70's that bring on the wilt symptoms, so I would think potted plants would be affected sooner. If there's any powdery mildew on the foliage the spots would be very obvious. It could also come in after another disease weakens the plant.