Pea Plant Victorian Colossal Climbing

No other pea will do once you've grown these. The best-flavoured pea of them all, and so many of them. Try them – you won't regret it!

Their flavour is sublime –deliciously sweet. The peas themselves are large, plump and juicy, and the yield can literally be massive. But the real benefit is the extended cropping period. From sowing you can expect to pick your first peas in about 2 months –and picking can continue for a month or more. Though described as a Maincrop variety, here on the nursery we sow and grow an early crop under glass, then follow this up with an early planting outside started under protection, and then a direct sown crop outside –which gives us peas all summer long!

No pea gives a better performance –not a bad accolade for a variety that's been around since the 1890s!

• For Growing In Rows
• Set out April to July 9" (23 cm) apart in rows 3-4 ft (100-120 cm).
• Provide support for these to climb up to a height of around 6-8 ft (1.8-2.4 m) using netting, a bamboo cane structure or similar.

• For Climbing Pea Teepees
• Using a dustbin lid or similar as a template, drive into the ground six 8 ft (2.4 m) canes and tie together at the top to produce a teepee effect.
• Plant at the foot of each cane.

• Top Tips
• Sow throughout the summer for continuity of cropping.
• Best results are obtained if a trench is dug in winter 18" (45 cm) deep and filled with compost, old newspapers, kitchen vegetable waste, etc. and then topped with soil. Sow on this for a prolonged crop, unaffected by summer drought.
• Protect newly-sown seeds from mice. Mice are notorious for sniffing out pea seed!
• Pheasants love young pea plants and will dig up the plants to eat the sprouted seed so take precautions if you have pheasants in your area.
• Protect young plants from pigeons.
• Young pea shoots are a real delight to eat raw in salads.
• A good precaution to prevent damage from Pea Moth or Pea Weevil is to spray the entire plant (flowers included) with our BioFriend Plant Defence periodically during the flowering period.
• Water well if the weather is dry when the pods are swelling.
• Regular picking will encourage further flowering and subsequent cropping. Peas freeze well so better to pick regularly and freeze any excess as this will keep the plants producing.
• After harvesting dig the plants into the ground to provide green manure and valuable nitrogen to the soil.