Growing Peas

When starting peas from seeds, you have the opportunity to grow a delicious and nutritious treat for your family with relatively little work. Peas are easy to grow, fun to harvest, and do not require special treatment to thrive in your garden. With a little bit of knowledge, you can grow peas quickly. Here are the things you need to know:

When Should You  Grow Peas?

Peas are often compared to beans, although similar in their growing structure, they are grown at entirely different times of the year. Beans enjoy warm weather and long days, while peas like cool weather, ample moisture, and shorter days. In Zones 9 and 10, you should plant peas in the fall, winter, and early spring. The idea time to plant is after a good rain when there is ample moisture in the soil to help the seeds break through their hard seed coats. If you wish to enjoy an excellent crop of peas during the winter, plant your peas in late fall and use shade cloth and row cover to protect them from the excess heat common in Zones 9 and 10. Aphids love to attack peas, if you encounter aphids on your peas, you can simply wash them off with a warm jet of water.

Considerations When Growing Peas

When growing peas, there are a few things to consider for the happiest crop possible. Peas are a vining crop and do best when they have a trellis or structure to grow on. Peas should be planted in full sun, especially if planted in the cooler, shorter days of fall and winter. Pea plants are natural nitrogen fixers, and when accompanied by the correct bacteria in the soil, they can leave your soil with more nutrients than before! Plants are so amazing!

How to Harvest Your Peas

Harvesting your peas is essential to the happiness and productivity of the plant. If you want an abundance of pea seeds or pea pods, you need to harvest the peas as often as possible so that plant can continue to put more energy into more production.

What Kinds of Peas Should You Be Growing?

The large variety of pea types may leave you overwhelmed when considering which to grow. There are several different types of peas. Edible podded peas include snow peas and sugar snap peas, which are popular for their edible pods, and soft peas. English peas are known for their pea seeds and typically have more fibrous pea pods.

Sweet peas flowers are not edible and should not be mixed up with edible-podded peas. Sweet peas are known for their lovely fragrant flowers, not for their pea pods.