Everyone's Pea Projects?

[Diane Whitehead]

The earliest pea I've found is not Alaska (55 days), but Sugar Ann Snap (52 days). That's good - I prefer eating the whole pod instead of shelling out peas.

[Tarruvi]

I have just placed some pollen from a Blue Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus), on one of my Iona Peas (Pisum sativum). I am doing this crosspollination between the two genera in hopes of getting the characteristic blue flowers from the Grass Pea into the our garden peas. I know there are some varieties that have near blue flowers, or fade to blue, but I'm looking for a true blue pea. I have low expectations this cross will bear any fruit, but it's worth trying on different varieties of Pisum sativum, and other Pisum species and subspecies with the Blue Grass Pea.

I'm interested in a few other colors as well, like Yellow and Green flowers. The former might branch off of the P. fulvum hybrid lines as genes mix and recombine, as there are yellow forms to that species. As for the green flowers, I could only assume may pop up if a mutation like chlorophyll in the flowers arose. But other avenues could be crossing yellow flowers with blue flowers (In the unlikely case of the Grass Pea experiment being successful)?

A more reasonable color I've been thinking of is red flowers, and that would be my second ongoing project involving Salmon Flowered (Pisum sativum) and Pisum fulvum. I was thinking the orange flowers from P. fulvum would lend enough "red" to the pink color of the Salmon Flowered variety. Since the two pigments of Carotene (orange) and Anthocyanin (red) should compound each other and make a fiery orange, or, hot red. I just have to wait on the P. fulvum to start flowering, and save whatever Salmon Flowered pollen I can in the freezer until then.

I personally think having all these colors would be fun. I often fantasize about seeing a load of multicolored umbellatum type peas similar to that of the Salmon Flowered, blooming in all sorts of colors in tufts at the top of each plant.

[Diane Whitehead]

Yes, blue flowers would be fun, but wouldn't you worry about the neurotoxin it contains?

[Tarruvi]

Diane, yeah the toxin is an issue. But, it should be able to be bred out with subsequent crosses with normal edible peas. Beta-aminopropionitrile should be more or less gone after F8 with a 0.78% or 1/128 chance of the genes responsible for the toxin surviving to that filial generation. But to be safe, I'd continue back crossing such a line even after that point to be doubly safe.

But such a task isn't needed at the moment, and will depend on if the cross takes in the first place. A cross-genus hybrid is highly unlikely to take, but can happen rarely.

[AndrewB]

I'm interested in a few other colors as well, like Yellow and Green flowers. The former might branch off of the P. fulvum hybrid lines as genes mix and recombine, as there are yellow forms to that species.

One line segregated last year from the fulvum hybrids into what was a productive domestic looking pea line with white flowers. Then I realized that the flowers were a light cream yellow,  nearly white. It might be fun to cross with the b gene of salmon/pink flowers,  but even with normal wild type the flowers would probably be closer to the fulvum peach/orange

[Tarruvi]

I do remember seeing that post, the pale yellow flower next to the white flower as a comparison had some nice contrast. One other thing I noticed is that a bunch of the P. fulvum hybrid flowers in the photos I've seen, seem to have a uniform color (the Banner and Wings are the same shade), instead of the usual bicolor (the Wings are a darker color than the Banner). I imagine that is because P. fulvum has a gene that make flowers express a uniform color, like the orange seen on it's flowers?

[galina gardiner]

We did a collection of pea flower colours a little white ago.  There is gf the green flowering gene.  https://www.growingfoodsavingseeds.co.uk/forum/breeding-and-genetics/new-channel/7493-pea-flower-colour-genetics

[Steph S]

Fantastic pea flower thread, Galina.  Thanks for sharing that.

[Tarruvi]

Those lime green flowers are stunning, all the flowers on there are. It's awesome to see that a green pea is out there, and that it could express greens to varying degrees when hybridized.

[Steph S]

My F2 peas of Sugar Sprint X Sugar Magnolia are up, so far no vole issues, although they are covered of course.  Anyway I figured I have to take a chance on it or never grow them.
I made small tunnels of hardware cloth, held in place with landscape staples, to cover the sprouted peas, but then had to remove them of course with the peas about 4 inches tall.
So far so good.
I notice that some of the seedlings have extra tendrils like the Sprint parent.
Looking forward to sampling some snaps.

[Tarruvi]

Those sound like they'd be some sweet tasting peas Steph. I imagine they're coming up, or, are going to come up with half purple and half green. What traits in the two varieties are you looking to combine?

[Tarruvi]

My red podded pea project is now in the fruiting stage with the F2s of Blue Pod Shelling x Yellow Sugar Pod flowering and just starting to produce pods. A bunch of the plants have two flowers to each node, something I thought was pretty nice as I'd love to develop a very productive line.

Onto the ratios, 15 out of the 42 surviving plants at this time have the recessive yellow pod gene, as indicated by their yellow sepals and tendrils. A 35.7% yellow to green ratio, or 15 yellow to 27 green plants. As far as the purple pigment is concerned, I have yet to see any appear on the small pods that are there. But, it's only a matter of time... What I have also noticed is that some plants have "droopy" flowers that never open but do fine and make pods regardless, a seriously odd trait from the Yellow Sugar Pod parent that I would rather be phased out (it makes it difficult to crosspollinate plants when the flowers are like melted lettuce). The good news is, that a handful of the yellow plants have regular flowers that keep their form! I just hope that at least one turns out to be red podded, and I'll be happy.

One anomaly did appear in the plants with one producing these purple and light blue striped flowers, like you'd see in striped roses or zinnias. All the other plants have the standard purple flowers, I'll have to keep an eye on that one.

[Steph S]

Those flowers are gorgeous Tarruvi.

Sugar Sprint is a really sweet pea.  I liked them a lot.  But the plants were so small and not productive.  Sugar Magnolia is a pretty pea (of course) but not as sweet as I like them TBH.
So I will be looking for a sweeter purple pea, or a sweet green snap with a better growth habit than SS.
Honestly it was a cross of opportunity, a chance for me to practice crosses with peas.
I love snap peas but rarely seem to grow them.  Not that much diversity as in the snow peas.
After a terrible year with voles eating all my soup pea plants I took a year off peas, and now I just want some snaps and snows to eat.  It's a sink or swim effort with every F2 seed planted, so if they're destroyed that will be start over time with something else.
So you could say I'm neither experienced nor terribly ambitious in pea breeding, but if I can save some F3 seeds of peas we like eating and growing for the variety of reasons, I'll be happy to make my garden genome more diverse.   I don't even have a favorite snap to grow, so anything might please me.
Really jonesing for some tasty peas after a year off, that's for sure.

These are all up and about a foot tall, looking good, grabbing the net.  So far no pest has come close to them (not even a slug, I patrol) nor their cousins the mix of snow peas, on either of trellises.
Blue jays are nesting close by though after seeing the trellis revival this spring.  They can and will have a few for sure.

[Tarruvi]

I think my red podded project was a bust this year, looking over all the promising plants only yielded fully yellow or yellow pods freckled with tiny red dots. I did get a green pod with a "flame" pattern over it, much like Rebsie's line of red podded peas sometimes throwing for that pattern instead of full red pods. I think I'll collect some seeds from these plants anyway, just out of curiosity to see if the project can be salvaged. I can't be too sure why every plant failed to express red pods, and even purple pods to make things more confusing.

What I have noticed though, and what may explain the red podded project failing this year, is that some of my pure purple podded peas in the garden have thrown some "flame" patterned plants outside of the project, as well as pods with a blush of purple. I think I may have crossed this trait into the project without knowing it, and it resulted in the F2s all being duds.



For crosses this year. I made sure to make fresh crosses between the purple and yellow pods. Just to resupply the project in case of total failure (which happened...), so all is not lost for next year's attempt at getting red pods. I also have some other hybrids in the works, involving parsley peas, green beauty, yellow podded, and crown peas. One cross I am excited about is between Pisum fulvum (orange flowered peas) and my snow peas. It's purpose is to have an orange flowered pea with slightly larger peas, and plants that can withstand my growing conditions (my P. fulvum plants struggled to grow in the garden, and barely produced any flowers.)

[Steph S]

The purple flame pattern is quite attractive.  Not sure if that can be stabilized?  I thought these patterns were expressed in heterozygous state only.
Red speckles:  how odd!!

My peas aren't flowering yet, but hopefully will start soon, and just about the time the hot weather breaks.  I've kept the plants shaded with row cover, which seems to help.