How to Grow Peas

Peas are a typical springtime crop being planted as soon as the earth is unfrozen enough to turn. They are probably the first crop one would plant in the garden.

Peas are part of the legume family along with kidney beans, chickpeas, etc. They may have originated in the Middle East to Central Asia and are a cool-weather crop. They’ve been around a long time: traces of them were found in Egyptian tombs and evidence of them in a cookbook; one of the first in Rome.

What are the Best Pea Varieties to Sow

There are two main types of pea: Ones grown for the peas within the pod which are best eaten as fresh as possible; and Mangetout or “eat all peas” where the whole pod is eaten.

For shelling peas try Maestro, Green Arrow, Lincoln, or Knight. Sugar snap is an old and reliable edible pod snap pea. Sugar Ann or Dwarf Grey Sugar grows a little smaller and is a good producer. For snow peas try Oregon Giant.

Peas are further divided into first early, second early and maincrop varieties:

1. First Early Peas include the popular ‘Early Onward’ highly regarded for its well-flavored prolific crops.
2. Second Earlies are typified by ‘Greenshaft’ a long podded pea with wonderful flavor.
3. ‘Onward‘ the most popular of all garden peas is a maincrop with plump, blunt-ended pods containing large extremely tasty peas.

For succession all three kinds can be sown at the same time or one or two varieties can be sown at intervals to get continuity of supply.

Probably the best varieties to pick are the compact, prolific ‘Delikett’ and ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ which are tall growing with sweet flavored pods.

Site Selection and Soil Treatment for Peas

They prefer a site that is sunny or partially shady and protected from strong winds as they grow tall and leggy and can be damaged.

They are a plant that extracts nitrogen from the air and stores it in small nodules at the roots so they should never be treated with a high nitrogen fertilizer. This will produce many leaves but not many peas. They do tend to drink a lot so they must be kept watered.

Early varieties will give fruit in about 12 to 14 weeks and later varieties will produce in about 15 weeks.

Choose a soil which doesn’t dry out in summer. Light soils benefit from the application of well-rotted garden compost to help retain moisture. The ideal pH for peas is 6.0 to 6.8.

How to Grow Peas

Peas love lots of water and need to be watered regularly. You can mulch with organic material (not wood mulch) to prevent moisture from evaporating. Straw and peat moss are a good thing to use.

For peas to grow, they first need to release nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the soil to convert it for their use. If you have a new garden or are using new soil, it can help to coat the seeds with an inoculant powder. The inoculant will help to increase your yield.

They do not need to be fertilized as long as the soil is rich in organics. If you need to fertilize do not use fertilizer containing nitrogen (the first number in fertilizer composition ex: 5-10-10).

In most cases, you will not have to fertilize peas. The plants will grow tall and will need some sort of support. How much depends on the variety so check the bag of the seed packet to see what is suggested.

Sowing and Planting Peas

How do you know when to plant peas? Any old Irishman will tell you that it is when one can sit naked on the ground without getting a chill but the scientific community will tell you when the ground temperature reaches 45 to 50 degrees.

Many say to plant 6 weeks before the last expected frost date. Some will start their crop earlier by using perforated plastic sheeting placed over their plantings in February. The sheeting warms the soil and allows water in.

In cold zones plant first crops from late March to early April. Next crops can be planted from late April to early May. You can try another crop in May to be harvested in early June but once the temperatures get more than 72 degrees the plants will not produce fruit.

Start Early Peas Off Indoors

Soak your seed (which is the actual pea) in water for about 4 hours before planting. The early crops sown directly into the organic vegetable garden find it difficult to germinate.

This problem may be overcome by sowing seeds into 90cm lengths of plastic guttering, filled with potting compost. Sow in March, keep in a cool greenhouse, and wait for the young plants to reach about 10cm tall, and establish a good root system.

When the vegetable garden soil has warmed up the contents of the guttering (compost and seedlings) may be slid out into a similar-sized trench in the soil.

Sow Later Crops Directly Into the Soil

If you sow your peas in cold wet soil they are unlikely to grow, and will most probably rot. Cover the soil with a large polythene sheet and allow a few hours of direct sunlight to warm the soil underneath before sowing your plants. Cover your young seedlings with fleece.

For early crops sow outdoors once the soil reaches 10 degrees C which is likely to be well into April in cooler northern areas (2-3 weeks earlier in the south). Continue sowing at intervals until early July.

Spacing of Pea Seeds in the Soil

Sow pea seeds in broad flat bottomed drills 23cm wide and 2.5-4cm deep. Space the seeds 5cm apart from each way and allow 60-90cm between the drills.

Should You Grow Peas in Raised Beds or Open Grounds?

A raised bed of soil is a large container without a base. With some basic building skills and know-how about soil, a gardener can construct one or more large containers or raised beds to grow vegetables.

Off the shelf, flat-packed raised beds sold by garden centers and building suppliers will be pallet-sized or between 1 meter to 1.2 meters squared. Buying or building a small square raised bed is the right sized container for growing peas. Why grow peas in a raised bed?

After the small squared raised bed for growing peas has been constructed, the most appropriate soil for peas can be cultivated.

A moisture-retentive nutrient-rich soil can be prepared in the large container or raised bed by forking in soil conditioner early in the season and added home-made well-rotted compost before sowing pea seed or planting young seedlings. Compared to growing in open ground:

• a raised bed takes the backache out of cultivating the soil
• growing peas in a large container allow control of the soil quality

Growing peas and mangetout in a small raised space will not reduce the yield of podded peas. Growing peas in successional sowing is a sound way to extend the vegetable’s season and in a raised bed:

• planting peas in a large container or raised bed encourages closer planting and in successive rows
• good yields of peas are possible in a raised bed as container gardening attracts extra light from all sides
• compared to growing peas in open soil, container growing can encourage better aeration around the young pea plants and reduce the risk of powdery mildew, a key disease affecting peas.

Regardless of whether peas have been sown as seed in March to April or transplanted as young plants in April to May when the summer arrives, growing peas will dry out. Raised gardening for growing vegetables such as peas is accessible to all the family. The advantages of growing in a raised bed are:

• being nearer to the cultivated soil can improve pea plant aftercare by spotting drying-out soil
• health and safety issues of watering vegetables can be reduced
• protected cultivation of peas, using individual cloches, tunnel cloches, or horticultural netting is easier to set up on container or raised bed

How to Support Pea Plants

Once your plants reach about three inches in height, their tendrils will start to reach out for something nearby to attach to for support. Make sure you have plenty of sturdy wooden stakes or bamboo canes nearby to stabilize your young plants.

You can place bamboo stakes near the plants and they will hold on and grow up. Netting can be purchased from the nursery to be wired to the stakes and will provide a sturdier surface in which to climb. Another good method is to stake chicken wire up and let the peas grow up the wire.

Bush varieties will be fine with stakes about 3 feet high and once the plant gets as high as the stakes they should be pinched back so that energy will start going into the fruit. Vining varieties grow much taller and will benefit from a trellis that is up to 5 feet. You can stake up a panel of lattice for them to grow up.

Pests and Diseases Which Attack Peas

As the growth of the peas plants responds to what’s on offer, there are five main pests and diseases that could threaten the plants producing fine tasting produce.

• Kakothrips pisivorus or pea thrips are a serious pest to watch for in the kitchen garden. Pea thrips can thrive on poorly watered pea plants in the summer sun. Known as thunder flies, pea thrips can distort and scar pods brown and reduce the number of peas in the pods.
• Mice– Field mice, wood mice, and house mice are considered as suspects of nibbling damage to peas, beans and sweetcorn in the garden report.
• Mildew- Mangetout, sugar snap, and garden peas leaves do not tolerate days of heavy rain. Mildew is likely to appear on peas when the atmosphere is saturated with water and if the soil around the peas is very dry.  Sowing peas with a generous amount of space between seeds should help air ventilation around the pea plants as they grow and reduce the chance of powdery mildew appearing. If powdery mildew does form on the leaves and goes on to kill small areas of the leaf tissue of productive plants this should not taint the taste of the freshly harvested peas.
• Cydia nigricana or pea moth will eat the pods of the podded peas including mangetout as the product starts to become a mature size. As the pea moth lays eggs in early summer when the pea plants are in flower, buying and sowing earlies varieties of peas should reduce this risk.
• Pea/Bean Weevil- Peas with their nitrogen-fixing root nodules are attractive to the pea and bean weevil larval stage. Pea weevils will hide from view when peas plant leaves are disturbed. Like pea moths, the adult pea or bean weevil, Sitona lineatus, enjoys eating a kitchen gardener’s produce and does this from the inside out. Once an attack has been spotted gardeners should remove any produce from nearby peas plants to avoid a serious infestation.

Local gardening clubs and national horticultural societies can offer further advice on gardening strategies to prevent and control peas against threats from pests and disease.

When to Harvest Peas

Peapods usually measure anywhere from 1-3/4 and 6 inches. They are best harvested when they are slightly immature as this will give you the sweetest taste. If you wait until the peas are too large, they will become bitter.

The peas that are ready first will be located at the bottom of the plant and once they are ready to start picking because this will encourage the plant to produce more. You will know they are ready when the pod looks green, shiny, and puffy and you pinch the pod you can feel fully formed round fruit.

Another way to check is to look at the seam on the sides of the pods. Ripe peas will change from a convex to a concave shape. To pick peas hold on to the pod with one hand and vine with the other and tug it off. They tend to want to hold on to the vine so make sure you don’t tug the vine out of the ground.

If you are growing snap peas make sure to pick them before the peas inside the pod fill out as their sweetness diminishes as the seed grows. Snow peas should be harvested when the pods are still flat.

The roots of your pea plants are full of nitrogen-fixing bacteria which convert the soil around them. Rather than digging up the roots of harvested plants, cut the stems off and allow the roots to rot. This will release nitrogen to prepare the soil for your next crop.

How to Preserve Peas

Peas quickly lose their sweetness after harvesting so make sure to use them immediately. If you don’t need them right away make sure to freeze them to preserve their flavor.

Some people like to use thin pods for stir-frys and other recipes, but to store, the peas should be a medium size. Pull the pods off the stalks without breaking the vine.

To shell the peas, press your thumb against the fullest part of the outside seam at the bottom of the pod, then split open the pod. Slide the peas out of the pod.

How to Blanch Peas

The storage process should begin as soon as possible after picking the peas because their flavor and sweetness disintegrate quickly.

As stated before it is best to eat your peas right after picking but that isn’t always possible especially when you have a big harvest. Three pounds of pea pods will usually make a good side dish serving for four people.

Once you have the peas shelled, it’s time to blanch them. Blanching maintains the color, texture, taste, and freshness of the peas by destroying enzymes and bacteria that are present in all vegetables. Blanching basically means exposing the vegetables to a brief period of heat through steam or boiling.

You can blanch peas using steam or even in the microwave, but the most reliable method is the following. Prepare a large pot of boiling water and a large container of ice-cold water. Every vegetable has a different blanching time; for peas, it is 90 seconds.

Start counting the time as soon as the peas enter the boiling water. After 90 seconds remove the peas from the boiling water and cool them thoroughly in the ice water for another 90 seconds. You can use the same water for both the hot and cold baths, just make sure to add more hot water or ice as required. Drain the peas once they are cooled.

Place the blanched peas in sealable plastic bags. There are some available that have vacuum sealing capabilities. It is important to remove as much air as possible from the bags to prevent freezer burn. If you don’t have a vacuum sealing option, insert a straw into the bag and seal the bag around it. Suck the air out and then seal the bag completely.

Throw the bags in the freezer and you’re done! When the winter snow starts flying, you can pull out a bag and enjoy a taste of summer by boiling up a bag of garden peas.