More about red pods and crosses

Although I started late, my peas are doing well. The tall varieties are about 2ft tall (of course the short ones are shorter!) now and they all look absolutely beautiful, and it probably won't be too long before they think about flowering, and then I can start to actually make crosses.

The first one I'm going to talk about is Golden Sweet x Purple Podded. I've mentioned this before, but in order to get red pods I need yellow pods with purple/red anthocyanin pigments laid over it - Golden Sweet has the yellow, and Purple Podded of course has the purple.

Pod colours, and some genetics

There's a surprising amount of variety in the colours of pea pods. We all know the standard green ones, but it's possible to get the following as well:

*Purple (courtesy of the Guardian)


*Yellow (grown by me, years ago)


*Red (courtesy of the lovely Rebsie Fairholm)


*Bluish-green (no picture, sorry, but I am growing a couple of types with this colour so I can show you later in the year)