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Old 29-03-2007, 02:26 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Gary Woods Gary Woods is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
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Default Peas and seed saving

Janet Tweedy wrote:

How far apart would I need to grow them to ensure that if I saved the
seed for next year it wouldn't be a 'mix'?


According to Suzanne Ashworth's "Seed to Seed:"

Garden peas have perfect flowers, and are mostly pollinated before the
flowers open. Having said that, the commercial standard for isolation is
100 meters, and if there is little other pasture for honeybees, they will
visit pea blossoms, increasing the chance of crossing.

Looks like unless you're going commercial, whatever spacing you can manage
would work. If you're really a purist, which I'm not, you could tent the
part of the row you want seeds from with Remay or whatever the floating row
cover stuff is called across the pond.

I've saved Sugar Snap pea seed from a row adjacent to Oregon Giant snowpeas
with no visible crossing, and that certainly would be evident the next
season.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G