PlanterTomato Vegetable Gardening

How and When To Plant Peas

Gardeners across the country are getting ready for spring plantings and one of the first crops to be sown are peas.

Peas have their origin in the Eastern Mediterranean in an area that is modern day Syria.  While grown and eaten since 5,000 BC, it wasn't until the 18th century, when sweet varieties were developed in England, that peas became popular as a fresh vegetable.   How thankful we should be to those English breeders because peas are perhaps the only early vegetable that provides such wonderfully sweet flavor.

Growing Peas

Peas prefer cool weather and germinate once temperatures are above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. For those living in the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest, that means it's now time to plant peas.  The rule of thumb is to plant peas about 4 weeks prior to your last frost date. A less scientific, but more memorable, rule of thumb is to plant peas on Saint Patrick's day. 

Peas shoud be planted about 2 inches apart and 1 inch deep.  Some gardeners recommend soaking peas in water overnight to increase germination rates.  I've never done this, but you might want to give it a try if germination has been a problem for you in the past.

Although peas will grow in partial shade, the resulting crop won't be very sweet.  It's best to find a sunny location for them.  Given that other sunny crops such as tomatoes and cucmbers are not in the ground at this time, it should not be hard to find such a place in your garden.

It's fine to work some compost into the soil before planting, but it is not necessary to add any fertilizer. Peas get their nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with a beneficial soil bacteria that is able to extract nitrogen from the environment.  You can add this beneficial bacteria to your soil prior to planting to help your pea crop and various seed catalogs sell this as pea and bean "inoculant."  Burpee sells it under the name "Burpee Booster"

Peas produce larger crop and are easier to harvest when given some support so I highly recommend that you take this step.  I use wire mesh fence panels that and garden stakes, but bamboo "tee-pee" style trellis are also a good choice. Shorter pea varieties, such as Green Arrow and Maestro, can be inter-planted with oats -- the peas climb up the oat stalks in the same way that beans and corn are sometimes paired together.  

Once in the ground, your seeds will germinate in about a week, although it could take as long as 20 days if the temperature and moisture levels are low.  Once germinated, peas will produce a crop in about 70 days.

Pea Varieties:

Peas come in three basic types as follows:

1. Garden Peas - sometimes referred to as "English" peas, these are what most of us think of first when peas are mentioned.  These varieites have stringy, inedible pods and need to be shelled prior to eating.  Dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties grow to be about 2 feet high, while taller varieties reach about 5 feet in height.  This season our family is growing an heirloom variety called Thomas Laxton.  Other good varieties worth considering include: Green Arrow, Wando, Lincoln, Alderman, Alaska and Laxton's Progress #9. Garden peas are a bit of a change of pace for us since we've grown the second type of pea, snap peas, for the last three years.  
2. Snap Peas -  Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of snap peas because both the peas and the pods are edible.  This means higher yields and lower work because there's no need to shell them.  I think this makes snap peas a particularly good choice for families with young children or those who have the pleasure of grand children since the kids can munch on them without having to deal with the pod. Some good varieties include: Sugar Snap, Cascadia, Sugar Daddy, and Sugar Sprint.
3. Snow Peas - These are varieties that have an edible pod and are consumed when the peas are immature and the pods are flat.  They are often seen in Asian cooking.  Some well known varieties include: Oregon Sugar Pod, Mammoth Melting, and Dwarf Grey Sugar.

Storing Peas:

In my opinion, peas are best enjoyed when fresh, but there they can be stored for later consumption. by drying, canning and freezing.  Frankly, freezing is so easy and the peas stay so sweet when frozen that I find it hard to recommend that you preserve them any other way.  If you are freezing Garden Peas, remove them from the pod and then follow the following simple steps below for all pea varieties:

1. Wash under cool water.
2. Blanche (quick cook) in boiling water for 90 seconds.
3. Remove the peas and then place into a ice water bath to quickly bring down their temperature.
4. Place into freezer bags, or better yet, vacuum bags, and then store in the freezer.

Give Peas A Chance

All we are saying, is give peas a chance.  Ok, that was dreadful joke, but I still do encourage you to think about adding peas to your garden.

I like peas for many reasons but certainly one of the first is that you can plant them early in the season and get a wonderful first harvest of the year.  Here in Northern California, I've planted them in pots in my greenhouse on New Years day and successfully harvested plenty of peas for the kids in the early Spring.  This year, I'm planting peas in a raised bed without protection, so I planted on February 13 and they should be ready for harvest in 60-70 days. 

Generally speaking, you can plant peas about 6 weeks prior to your last frost date.  Below is a list of frost last frost dates for select cities around the country to give you a general sense for when to plant peas in your neck of the woods.  To find you exact last frost date, check out this helpful guide from Victory Seeds.

 
Peas generally grow on vines but some varieties have a growth habit that's more like a bush and don't need trellising.  Traditional shelling peas, or English peas, are a personal favorite, but we tend to buy these from the farmers market where we have a local grower who sells the most wonderfully sweet peas.  With such a good supply of the English variety, I shift production in my garden to Sugar Snaps.  These are peas where the pod is completely edible. 

If you want to try a low maintenance variety of sugar snap pea, give Sugar Sprint a whirl.  This is a bush type that requires no support.  And as an extra benefit, they are almost string-less, making them a particularly kid-friendly crop.

If you sow pea seeds directly, plant them about 1 inch apart and eventually thin to every 3 inches.  You can grow the bush varieties in rows that are about 1.5 feet apart.  If you are growing peas that are supported, you should space your rows about 5 feet apart. 

Peas fix nitrogen via nodules on their roots that take advantage of beneficial bacteria.  You can increase the yield of your peas by adding a bacterial inoculant to your soil.  This inoculant is often available at garden stores, but Burpee also sells it mail-order if you can't find a local supplier.

Peas Shoots Can Be Eaten

Here's one last tip...Tender young pea leaves and tendrils can be eaten.  We've had these as the green vegetable in Asian noodle soups and you can also add them to stir fry dishes.  They are a nice change of pace from pak choi.

Give peas a chance.  You'll be glad you did.

 

First Harvest of 2010: Sugar Snap Peas

Consider Adding Sugar Snap Peas to Your List For Early Season Harvests.

Normally, you plant Sugar Snap peas in early spring.  But we live in a very temperate climate (zone 9) and also have a small greenhouse, so we planted Sugar Snap peas the day after the New Year. 

Yesterday, we got our first harvest of these delicious veggies.  We were going to eat them with dinner, but the kids ran off with the bowl and ate them before the rest of the meal was on the table.  No matter; any vegetable in high demand with our kids, is a welcome veggie in our house.

And there's nothing like sugar snap peas.  The are so crunchy and sweet.  And the yields are higher on Sugar Snaps because you eat the pods as well as the peas.  This higher yield is particularly nice when growing vegetables in the limited space within a greenhouse.

The variety I planted this year is called Super Sugar Snap from Burpee.  This variety grows about six feet tall, but you can find bush varieties that are more compact if you prefer not to trellis them. 

Generally, you harvest Sugar Snaps in about 70 days.  Ours took a little over 90 days due to our super early planting.

If you decide to grow snap peas, remember that they fix nitrogen using special bacteria.  If you are growing peas in an area for the first time, I'd advice you to add the bacteria to the soil to ensure healthy plants.  Burpee and other companies sell the bacterial inoculant under a variety of names, but they generally include the words "pea and bean booster" in the product description.

Spring is here.  If you have space in your garden, you may want to give Sugar Snaps a try.

A Tip for Pollinating Peas & Tomatoes

The last  few days, we've seen temperatures in mid to upper 70's Fahrenheit and things are really heating up in the garden!

The sugar snap peas that I planted in the greenhouse on New Year's day, are now about 4 feet tall and have flowered.  It won't be long before we start harvesting.

A Tip For Ensuring Good Pollination

Peas and tomatoes are self-pollinating, meaning you don't need a bee or other insect to pollinate the flowers.  Wind or just natural pollination of the plant takes care of this. 

But if you're growing these vegetables in a greenhouse, there is little to no wind to either move the pollen or directly or agitate the plant which would cause pollen to spread within the flower.

So to be on the safe side, I give the plants a little extra help.  I use an electric toothbrush to agitate the plants and spread the pollen.  Just turn on the toothbrush and run the back of the brush head along the flower and stem. 

So brush your self-pollinating plants, but pass on flossing.

 

Easy Peasy-- Sugar Snap Peas for Early Season Harvests

If you have kids and want them to eat their vegetables, there's nothing better than sugar snap peas.  They are easy to grow, kid-pleasingly sweet, and probably the first thing you can harvest, other than radishes.

I planted my sugar snap peas the day after New Year and they are now over two feet tall. (I'm in Northern California - Zone 9)

While I like English, or shelling peas, I prefer to grow sugar snaps in my garden and leave the shelling peas to the vendors at our local farmers market. 

It's really just a matter of practicality for me.  Since I grow most of my vegetables in  containers in a greenhouse, space is always at a premium.  With sugar snap peas, you eat both the peas and the pods.  In consequence, you get a higher yield per square foot with sugar snap peas than with shelling peas. (Both produce about 2 lbs of pods per 10 foot row when planted according to instructions - but you eat all of the sugar snaps)

Many of my readers in cooler climates will be planting in the next few weeks.  Give some thought to adding sugar snap peas.  I think you'll like them.