I always trellis peas. Is this some variety that doesn't climb? If you don't give them something to grab, they're going to be all over the ground. Peas are never going to grow with an erect stem. How big is your bucket? At some point, they may outgrow it.

The bucket is less than 5 gallons, 3.5 I think. I actually forgot to mention that all my seeds germinated but I did not thin or transplant yet. My understanding is that if I keep them watered I should be able to get growth and even production but less production per plant. I still think I will thin or transplant but I did not think I was at the outgrow point but maybe I need to consider doing that sooner rather than later.

Well, 3.5 gallons isn't going to support a lot of peas, especially if you have a lot of plants growing. Yes, in principle multiple plants in the same place will produce as much as a single pant there would. Like several stems on one plant. But I'm just wondering if 3.5 gallons would even allow the equivalent of a single plant to fully mature. A single pea plant a couple of months old will have roots almost two feet deep, and a few feet across. So those roots would be pretty crowded in a 3.5 gallon jug.

You don't need to tie peas to their supports. They produce tendrils and climb by themselves. Twiggy branches or netting are better than bamboos because the tendrils need something thin to cling to. It is possible that your peas are especially weak and floppy because they have been kept indoors.

The bamboo sticks I have in mind are basically the twiggy branches from a longer bamboo stalk, they're as thin as a chopstick, maybe even thinner. These peas have tendrils but don't seem as tendril-y as the peas I grew this past fall, although maybe they will become more tendril-y as they grow, it seems like as of now I can't rely on them to create their own support via their tendrils.

The peas were brought outside and their outside time was increasing to a few hours, what made me started limiting their outdoor time was when they started flopping over because of the wind, the flopping over seems to be more related to them getting taller, although my concern is that things are stagnant / regressing because I have to limit their outdoor time because of the wind. From the beginning I was mindful of the temperature and intensity of the sun, and that was very manageable and I was able to take the plant out, leave it for a while then bring it back in, now I have to check the plant at 20-30 minute intervals to see if it is flopping.

I guess what I'm leaning toward is adding the bamboo and lightly tying the plants to the sticks - my biggest concern is disturbing the roots, and hopefully with that support (and eventually adding the tomato cage) I can increase the outdoor time to the point where the plant will be more of an outdoor plant than an indoor plant.

They are going to fall over unless you plant them thickly enough that they can support themselves or you give them some type of support. Doesn't matter if they are dwarf or not. Starting them inside where the light is weaker and there is no breeze to stiffen their stems certainly hasn't helped though.

Rodney

I also suspect that the peas are weaker from being grown inside. When inside, try to run a fan in the room (ceiling fan or table fan) to expose them to a bit of wind to strengthen them or you could gently brush them with your hand to simulate a breeze.

For dwarf peas, I often sow them very thickly and they hold on to each other and that helps but I will also add some bamboo or twigs for a little extra help. In my area Spring is trickier for peas though, because the winds in this prairie type of area can be fierce and then it gets too hot, too quick.

Planting thicker is a great solution - unless you are trying to grow them in only a 3 1/2 gallon pot. I don't think you ever said how many plants were in this container but if more that 3-4 then that is 2 strikes against them to begin with. Leggy, lanky plants are also caused by over-crowding as much as by too little light.

Dave

" the plant will be more of an outdoor plant than an indoor plant." Yes, that goes without saying. Peas are hardy cool weather plants and need to be outside full time. Unless you have some kind of fancy climate controlled set up with lights.

Any chance of a picture of these peas?

The OP was saying that she was wanting the peas "back to being erect". They won't ever be erect, once they are taller than a few inches. Peas grow by meandering and ideally grabbing on to whatever they can find. They are fundamentally vines. Yes, if you grow them in bunches, I suppose they can tie themselves into some sort of erect knot. But even on a trellis, anything will pick up the wind.

Hi dropping in with an update.


I did stake the peas to some small bamboo branches. One of the issues was my mindset, I had planned to provide support for the peas when they reached the first rung of a tomato cage and the peas cooperated with me until the wind incident.


One or two of the plants have surpassed the height of the tomato cage so I need to deal with that, when that happened to my cucumber last year I just attached another tomato cage upside down to the one that is in the pot and affixed with zip ties.


The plant is growing, no flowers or peas yet.

They are due for a fertilizer treatment and I am trying to figure out what to use. I have regular fertilizer which is heavy on nitrogen and my understanding is that is not recommended. I am considering using one of my bloom-centric fertilizers that have a low or no nitrogen or kelp meal.

I did not remove any of the pea plants, that was not intentional, I planned to remove some of the plants but never got around to it and now they are too unruly and tangled up.


I don't think that they got floppy because of the time spent indoors but I did learn a lesson that I did not need to be as conservative as I was when it came to letting the plant be outside in the cooler weather.

I brought them in last week because we had a day or two of severe thunderstorms followed by a couple days of high winds. I think that was the right thing because the leaves on other plants that were left outside got ripped.

Thanks everyone for the input and advice.