Pea update: purple mangetouts

F2 plants from a cross of Golden Sweet x Carruthers' Purple Podded. The colours are stunning when the sun shines on them.

Pictures speak louder than words with these, I think. These are for the Real Seeds purple mangetout project, F2 seedlings from two crosses: Golden Sweet x Desiree and Golden Sweet x Carruthers' Purple Podded. Hopefully a majority of them will turn out purple podded, and from those I hope to find some which have the recessive mangetout pod type. Mangetout peas lack the gristly layer of fibre on the inside of the pod.

All the parent varieties used in this project have purple colouring in one form or another, so it's not surprising that all the F2 plants are showing purple colour. Theoretically they should all be genotype AADD. It is variable though. Some plants have a dark purple axil splodge, some have red edges or red flushes on the leaves, some have rosy stems and tendrils.

They're all beautiful.

Golden Sweet x Carruthers' Purple Podded with non-serrated red leaf margins, pink stems and green tendrils

Deep rose blush on stems and tendrils on a Golden Sweet x Carruthers' Purple Podded plant, and even on the back of the leaves. This one has serrated edges.

I suspect some of the strong purple colouring on these plants has been brought on by the intensely cold nights we've been having. They've been snowed on and endured two or three hard frosts. Tough little things.

Some of the plants have serrated leaf margins, similar to the yellow sugarsnap project. They also share the tendency for dwarf plants to have darker leaf colour ...

Pink stems on a Golden Sweet x Desiree plant. This one is going to have a dwarf habit, it's very low and bushy and you can see the slugs have already been at it. Notice the dark green leaves compared to the yellowy green of the one in the picture below.

A big dark smudgy axil ring on a Golden Sweet x Desiree plant, which also has some purple spots on its leaves.