I've been growing peas every spring for 13 years now. I grow 3-4 varieties in several different places for a total of about 30-40'. I happen to really like peas. I've tried a half dozen different kinds and my plants always grew to be 3-4-5' tall and gave me a nice, little harvest. The significant adjective is 'little'. Just enough that I had peas for myself for dinner for 5-7 days. Twice I had enough that I was able to freeze or dehydrate about the same amount for the winter. But nothing spectacular. So 2 years ago I decided to try growing peas in the fall which some people here do. About the same thing happened. Another nice, little harvest. The problem is that spring and fall only last about a month here before it gets too hot or too cold. But I did learn that peas are a lot sweeter when grown in cool weather. That's good to know.

Well, last fall I grew 4 varieties that I really like but I was running low on seed for 2 of them. So as winter approached I decided to leave 2 of them in place over winter so the last pods could dry up and give me new seeds for this spring. I could have collected the dried pods and refrigerated the seeds like usual but I figured I'd just leave them there and collect the seeds in the spring when I cleaned out the plants and tossed them in the compost pile. The first surprise was the plants stayed green all winter (except for one spot which I'll explain in a minute) even though I never watered them and it hovered around 30* for 2 months.

And what happened this last 6 weeks has blown me away! The beginning of March I started planting my peas as usual in a few places and then noticed last years peas had begun to grow again.... like crazy! Not just a little growth... they doubled in size in about 2 weeks. They were hanging all over the place and falling off the trellis so I used bungi cords to hold them to the trellis. They are sharing a bed with some of my strawberries. They soon began to flower and now I'm getting a great harvest. The peas I planted on March 1st are still only a foot tall but the old peas are over 6' now and still growing like crazy! And I can't even see the bungi cords that are buried in the middle somewhere!

Boy, am I happy. For now on I will start all my peas in the fall. Over the winter I don't have to water them or worry about bugs or anything! And I would highly recommend this for anyone in high desert country or zone 8b. Special note- in the bottom of the right hand corner of the first picture you can see a small brown patch of the peas. The one down side of growing in the fall was that they got a touch of powdery mildew which has never happened to my peas before. Since I was going to let them die back over the winter I decided to try something new to kill it. Yes, I read it online. Go figure. I mixed 1 teaspoon of vinegar with 1 and ½ gallons of water and sprayed them. Don't do that! It did kill the mildew but also turned the vines crispy. It didn't kill the vines, they have new growth now and are fine but I don't think they have forgiven me yet!
Happy gardening.

Good job. I also over winter English peas in my version 8b. Most consistent results with smooth seeded peas like Willet wonder or Early Alaska, but also have good results with many wrinkle seeded varieties. Best to date being PLS 595. They are pretty cold tolerant tolerating temps down to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I have not tried the tall varieties under these conditions.

The pictures are 'Tall Telephone' peas. They are awesome. And thank you. Coming from you that is a big compliment!

You are doing exceptionally well. Tall Telephone, Alderman and Novella ( one of the first released afila types) were ones I quit trying to grow in the 70's. Never could get a good yield from them in Viginia's New River Valley. Did have success with Freezonian which I planted on both sides of a five foot fence. Not as a vine as Telephone or Alderman, but a great yielder. Current status of Willet Wonder. In doubles rows at 12 inch spacing they support themselves pretty well.

Wow, your peas look terrific! Looks like you like peas too and feed a whole lot of people. Good point, I definitely need to change my spacing now. I had no idea when I started that it would take years and decades to learn all this. I hope you have taken many people under your wings and mentored them. You have so much to share! And thank you for sharing with us.