I plant my pole beans and peas (from seed) about 1-2" apart. I've had pole beans coming out of my ears all summer. They're still going strong. The shelling peas I only got one meal out of (for the three of us) before they started turning brown and dieing off. But I'm not sure spacing was the problem. I ended up with better yields this spring from seed than I got the prior fall when I planted from starts and spaced them farther apart.

Now you've got me wondering what can increase the yields of shelling peas. I assumed I just have to plant more and succession plant to get more meals out of them. Last fall was the first time I'd tried them, so I'm rather new with peas, unfortunately.

I always plant my peas 1-2" apart since they don't take up that much space, and they vine 1 foot upwards anyways. I usually get about 8-10 pods out of each plant before they die off.

If you pull a mature pea plant up, the roots are very small, and don't spread the much down or outwards, so I don't think that close of spacing is a problem. I did hear that peas only like to be fertilized once, when they are 2-3" tall. After that, nothing but strictly water. Is that true?

Count me among those who plant their beans 4 inches apart in the row. Peas 2 inches. Pole beans 3 inches.

Next year I'm planting half runners, and will run a string about 20 inches or so over the rows for them to trail on.

My beans/peas are 6" as that coincides with my mesh size and gives me good circulation, esp now as powdery mildew coming on.

Dan

Good information. Think I'll try spacing peas at 2 inches apart next year; hopefully the summer will not set in as quickly next year.

Surprised that jordanz only gets 8-10 pods per plant. That is probably close to what I got this year with the hot weather that kicked in early (not including probably one pod per plant for seed saving). Last year with the Dwarf Gray Sugar peas, they were fully loaded and I barely could keep up. About 13 pounds total amongst 100 plants I believe.

Based on two-inch spacing, I should be able to get about 282 plants (about 47 feet).

Concerned about putting them that close for this reason - ease of being able to work your hands through the vines to get at the pods.

I only got 10 pods per plant because of my location/heat. I live in the Mojave Desert and spring plantings aren't the best, because it's up to 100+ degrees in no time. I probably planted them a little late too (first of May), should've planted them 2 weeks earlier.

I just planted some 2 weeks ago, so I think this next batch will generate much more yield since the weather won't be a factor. I wish I could get that many peas!

jordanz - Planting beans right now (or two weeks ago) is fine for your area, however it's way too early to plant peas.

Greg
Southern Nevada

Sandhill, well I though peas took about 60 days to get pods, correct? I planted about 70 days before our first freeze date (Nov 15th). Wouldn't a freeze kill off all the peas anyways?

They seem to be doing awesome, germinating like crazy, and are already about 3-4" tall after about 2 weeks.

For many years I have used the 'English' method for peas.
Take out a spades width of soil, plant 2 inches apart, in all directions. So in that width you can get approx 4-5 rows. This mass planting helps as the plants help to suport each other. Large crops, we get buckets full of shucking peas.

It may also depend on how they're supported. For my planting, peas and pole beans are all trellised. Peas are usually 1-2 inch apart, and pole beans 2-4 inch apart on one side. I get about two pounds of snow peas per week from a few plants, about 2 pounds from three pole bean plants (7 lbs from 10 plants from the 2nd planting).

For my configuration, planting peas close together do not seem to affect the harvest much.

Jordanz, I've been growing peas for years. In my SF East Bay zone 8, a few freezes and ice/hail have never killed any peas. I guess our advantage is that we really don't get much snow here so the fall planted peas always produce until early summer for me. I also sow peas in September every year.