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My cream peas are germinating! But something seem to be wrong with some of them. Some are being born with thick stems, poor root systems and small seed leaves. I think I've seen that occur in newborn squash, but not peas. What's causing this, bad seed? The seed are not old, I saved them myself from last year's pea plants. I can try to get pics if you want me to, but since my phone's bitting the dust all I can use to upload pics now is my tablet, and my tablet doesn't take very sharp pics. Anyway, does anyone know what might be causing the deformed newborn peas?

If you saved the seeds from an F1 generation, that may be contributing to the problem.

I've NEVER Heard of hybrid cream peas. These seed were saved from plants I grew from seed I saved from pods picked from someone else's garden. Make sense? Let me try again...last summer I was offered free leftovers from some friends garden. I picked over their cream pea patch and later while shelling the pods, I came across some peas that were germinating. I planted them and grew them out. I allowed some pods on the plants to dry and go to seed. Those seed are the ones planted this year, now. So these seed are second generations for me.

Not sure if it is a solution, but here in Alabama we always plant zipper cream peas, purple hulls, and black eyes after the first cold weather crops come out of the ground. Usually late May in our location.
It seems we get better germination when the ground temperature is higher, and for us there is less competition from the spring weeds.
Maybe they have cold tootsies?

No, I don't think cold roots are the problem. The temperatures here in Texas have been quite warm. It may just be a genetic deformity. I've seen the problem occur before in newborn squashes. The main root base will look broken off and smaller root try to emerge from it.

Can someone please tell me what's wrong with these pea plants??
They are very slow growing and most are seemingly puny. Leaves look gnarled, is that being caused by aphids, genetic deformity or disease? There's nothing I can do for the aphids and worms, sprays and dusts are NOT working.

If bug holes doesn't get any worse than that I would not worry about it. Look on under side of leaves see if there are bugs or worms. I blast bugs & worms away with the water hose every day it is a very long walk back with those tiny legs. Look for bug eggs on under side of leaves. Small plants usually mean they need more food. Plants don't like being on a diet any more than people do.

From what I understand, peas do not like a lot of fertilize or they'll burn. The soil was amended with crushed egg shells, a little bit of really old chicken litter, a little bit of store-bought bagged manure and a touch of MG potting soil. The rest of the soil is natural sand and topsoil.

Are the aphids causing the gnarled leaves?

My mother is having nothing but trouble with her pea patch. I went and visited her garden this morning, and In my opinion I think they're doing good. They're just loaded with blossoms and young pea pods. However, she's now having ants in the plants (that she said her Sevin Dust isn't killing) and I noticed these trails in the leaves. In all the whining and complaining my mother does to me about her stupid peas she's never mentioned seeing snails or slugs. So could leafhoppers or the ants be causing the trails?

I'll be glad when her peas are finished, I'm tired of hearing about them. I've got my own garden to worry about.

TomatoNut95 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:41 am

My mother is having nothing but trouble with her pea patch. I went and visited her garden this morning, and In my opinion I think they're doing good. They're just loaded with blossoms and young pea pods. However, she's now having ants in the plants (that she said her Sevin Dust isn't killing) and I noticed these trails in the leaves. In all the whining and complaining my mother does to me about her stupid peas she's never mentioned seeing snails or slugs. So could leafhoppers or the ants be causing the trails?

I'll be glad when her peas are finished, I'm tired of hearing about them. I've got my own garden to worry about.

Ants are my garden friend they eat, mites, aphids, all the tiny micro small bugs. It is better too have Ants on your plants than Sevin on your plants. I have never had ants do any damage to plants.

But what's causing the trails?

those trails are obviously leaf miners — I believe it’s a fly species that affect legumes.

tell her to stop using sevin— if not working on ants, they are probably already resistant. Are these same ants as the ones you get? I remember you had to try some different methods.

Sevin is killing all the beneficial predators that could help with the leaf miners. The maggots when they get inside the leaf are impossible to kill with any kind of spray or dust unless systemic (poison that gets into all parts of the plant - not what you want to use on edibles — I wouldn’t use them on ornamentals either but that’s me)

I believe there are pheromone baited sticky traps for those flies.

She told me she saw some sugar ants, and an ant-looking clearish looking bug. She didn't know what it was. When I visited her pea patch this morning, I saw a mound of fire ants.

As for the Sevin Dust, she's going to use whatever she thinks is best. She doesn't do what I tell her. She's probably having the same bug problem I am. Simply not enough good bugs to outweight the bad, so there's no choice but to spray or dust.

I'll check her peas again sometime and watch for whatever strange bugs I might see. Maybe tommorow morning. I've already told her about the sticky traps, but it's her garden and there's nothing I can do about it.

When your mother is not looking replace her Sevin dust with kitchen flour or corn starch then let her dust plants all she wants. The marks on the leaves don't appear to be causing any serious problems, if you don't see bugs during the day it is probably something that comes after dark. 2 hours after dark go out and inspect leaves with a flashlight. Until leaves have serious damage keep an eye on it and don't worry much about it. Put sugar in the garden in several places it will attract sweet ants to the sugar not the plants but first make sure you don't need those ants on your plants they may be doing good things for the plants.

You should be able to buy good fire ant killer in TX when I lived in AZ the best fire ant killer was tiny pellets that look like cat litter very low cost stuff. Fire ants were never a problem in my AZ garden they were only a problem when setting in chair they climb up on you then you get bit. Pour vinegar on fire ant bites it makes the itch go away. I would always move away from the fire ants if I could before I killed them.

Was your ant pellets by any chance Spectride or however that's spelt? That stuff works great but you're not supposed to use it around edibles.

Every time I see her peas I think they look great. They're loaded with blossoms and pea pods. I think she over worries about them, but she's not going to do what I tell her. Substituting the Sevin for flour sounds pretty good, but she'd find out somehow. She knows what Sevin smells like, I don't believe she wears a mask while dusting.

Gary350 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:11 am

When your mother is not looking replace her Sevin dust with kitchen flour or corn starch then let her duct plants all she wants.

@Tomatonut, may be read this one more time?
Subject: Arrggh! Neighbor spraying Sevin without notice!

...This is NOT the time to be jeopardizing one’s immune system/health in ANY way. Also, if she is using DUST, She should be protecting her lungs from the dust by wearing an appropriate mask regardless of toxicity (but this IS toxic) — again ESPECIALLY right now.

Trust me, I've already told my mother about wearing a mask when she dusts. She is a stubborn mule and will not do what I tell her.

The trails are definitely leaf miners. They are a nuisance but usually don't do much harm. They are flies and hard to catch. The holes could be from beetles or snails and slugs. Sevin won't hurt the snails. For that you do need snail bait. I use outdoor Terro to control the ants. The best time to spot snails is after dark with a flashlight or in the early morning just before dawn. There is enough light 30 minutes to spot them. You can set traps for the snails if you don't use slug bait. Beer traps or a rough wet board propped on the ends will attract snails to hide during the day. You can catch them napping.