My Experiment of Growing Peas in a Container vs Growing Peas in a plot in the Garden....
As a gardener, we all get that fun itch to experiment, and virtually all gardening is an ongoing experiment. So, Early in May, about 2 weeks before the last frost I planted 40 peas seeds in a raised garden 4 X 8 with strings for them to climb, and then I planted seeds in 3 different types of containers. Two of them in pots and one in a hanging basket. I used the same soil for all pea seeds. They were all exposed to the same amount of sun, rain and watering. Here are the results and what I think is why they are so drastically different.
The first picture was taken on June 16 and the second picture was taken on July 17. As you can see from these first two pictures that my peas are healthy and growing and abundant.
The third picture is my pea plant from the same seed and in the same soil, not doing so great. and the fourth picture same situation but in a hanging basket, also not looking so great.
So my conclusion, is this. All 3 peas containers are exposed to the same amount of water, which has been alot because we had endless rain this past month. I had lots of holes and irrigation for the soil as I always add sand to my soil and put rocks at the bottom of my containers, so it's not an irrigation problem. My soil PH is what it should be for Peas to thrive, so what I am thinking is that too much rain has caused my leaves on the containers pot and hanging basket to turn yellow. There is less area for the water to spread to and cause the leaves to go yellow. Now let's look at the pea pods themselves.
So as you can see the two outside pea pods were from the containers and they are not as healthy looking and more yellow, just as the leaves are. If any of you can point out something, anything that I am missing, or a very different theory than mine, I would greatly appreciate it, and we all can learn something from container gardening.
Happy Trails
My thought, based on past experience with pots is that the dirt in the pots gets warmer than the dirt in the raised bed because of the sun. I think it tends to heat up the roots too much, especially for a cool loving plant like peas. I had tomato plants in big pots outside last year, and they didn't do as well as the plants in the ground. I finally realised that the sun was warming up the dirt in the pots too much. You could feel the difference pretty easily. On a cool cloudy day it doesn't make much difference, but when the sun is shining it can change the temperature of the dirt in a pot quite a bit.
Yes you are right about that, but the shine has had a difficult time trying to find Ontario this summer. LOL it's the endless rain....thanks for your advice
June was like that here, endless rain. I couldn't get beans to sprout, it was too wet, they were just rotting in the ground. The only beans that came up were in a raised bed.
This! I concur! Heat is the bane of peas, whether the soil, the air, or the sun, peas like a cool life.
Ugg, showing my age that I remember this but, "cool like Fonzi" is the pea life.
Upvoted the comment for the Fonzi refrence. :-)
I watched that show...
Excellent experiment! I'm thinking it might be a combo of too much water and warmish containers. Mine are a bit scraggly, but still producing:
We haven't had an especially wet year, so if it's too much water, that's on me. Plus, my peas are in the blue buckets, not white like everything else, so they will heat up quicker.
Next year, thanks to your research, I'll use the white buckets and put them in a cooler spot.
Nice pictures, and I do hope that your yields are abundant. Yes having white buckets does help, but really our season has not been overly hot because of too much rain. Nights go down to 10 celcius, and the days maybe 25 as a high.
Those are some 'pea-utiful' looking peas! thanks for the post.
Found some pea growing tips that might help:
Thank you for all your help. I am actually always quite successful at growing peas, but not in containers so I thought I would give it a go, and well these are my results, so I will browse your info and see if I can fix it.
I think you're right it might be just the endless rain you talked about, maybe combined with not enough sun. Happy gardening.
Thank you and Welcome to STEEEMIT.
Excellent post and experiment. Great information. Thank you for your hard work and sharing. We love peas and because of all the spring rain in Montana got them in late this year and not producing well. Love the raised bed idea. Will try that next year.
I think you need a wider basket:
Probably a bit deeper would help, but not matter as much.
Good experiment :)
Edit: Well, I read some comments, and it seems the heat is a logical factor as well. Look into the depth of roots though, maybe it doesn't matter as much. But with the heat, I bet it doesn't help the roots :\
it has not really been hot here as the nights go down to 10 celcius and the days 25 ish but with the rain it has been averaging 18, so I really don;t think it was the heat. But thanks for the input and diagram as I really never thought about the root spacing, you make a logical point. Thank you.
Like others who have already posted, I think it is probably a combination of too much water and warmth. But this was an informative experiment. I wouldn't have thought there would be such a big difference.
Thank you and Welcome to STEEMIT. I am following you now.
@sustainablyyours this is a good post to think about, just posted this afternoon
https://steemit.com/life/@gardengirlcanada/preparing-the-homestead-for-winter-the-time-is-right-now
thanks , upvoted and resteemed also for ships and giggles I upvoted all your comments
Thank you so much, you are very kind. I just would like to share my educational experience with my fellow gardeners and resource share our knowledge
Peas turn yellowish from too much water. They don't like to have wet feet, that's my experience growing them in my property :) Good luck!
Yes I see that and with all the rain, it makes sense, but just look at how lush my climbing peas in my 4 X 8 planter is doing amazing in the exact same conditions. So it has to do with the size of the container in the wet conditions is my guess
Most likely yes, this is so interesting. I did notice my peas grew better in the hard, almost clay soil than in soft potting soil. Weird... This was the last year growing peas, I am rotating this year with beans. I think between the peas and zucchinis they leached my soil :(
Ah so you read my post about crop rotation. The sad part is, that this is first year crop in those pots and my 4 X 8 raised bed, as I had just had it built. Ya, all my soil is clay on the ground in my garden and nothing grows, I did try peas and nope, I had a horrible garden last year because I am on all clay, this is why I built my raised beds.
My family owns tabacco plantations and crop rotation is something I was taught early on as fungal growth is very common in soil in the case of tobacco. 🌱
I feel you about the clay, that's one reason I started composting and got chickens, the only things that grow here is chaparral, cactus, sage, oak and manzanita and I really wanted an edible garden. We had to dig out the clay and replace it in some areas and in others I just mixed in compost and chicken waste. I think those parts are better though. I honestly think in regards to your peas it had to do with the planter as you said.
Oh I wrote a little about my grandmother and her plantations today.💕
Great post! Nice experiment to do! I have done similar experiments (not on purpose). The first year we grew, we grew out of containers, tomatoes, eggplant and strawberries. Nothing ended up doing that great, I actually ended up cutting the bottoms out of the containers of the tomato ones and they rooted into the ground.
Next year I just put seeds into outside soil for all that we grew. Everything thrived!!!!