Preparing and Planting the Season's First Crop of Peas
Everybody is thinking about the spring gardens, including all of us here at my Bedford, New York farm. In fact, we just planted our first crop in the vegetable garden - peas!
Peas thrive in cool weather, and young plants can even tolerate light frosts. It’s important to plant peas as soon as possible in spring in order to get a full harvest before hot summer temperatures arrive. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, planted several varieties of shelling peas and edible pods along the fence line of the vegetable garden. I am a big fan of succession planting, so this planting will be followed by another in a couple of weeks in order to maximize the garden's yield.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- Here’s Ryan preparing the seeds before they are planted into the ground. Snow, snap, and shelling peas are all members of the legume family. Snow peas are also known as Chinese pea pods. They are flat with very small peas inside, and the whole pod is edible. Snap peas are a cross between snow peas and shelling peas – the whole pod is eaten and has a crunchy texture and very sweet flavor. Shelling peas are also sometimes called garden peas, sweet peas or English peas. The pods are firm and rounded, and the round peas inside need to be removed, or shelled, before eating. The peas are sweet and may be eaten raw or cooked.
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- Many of our seeds come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. This is one of their new pea varieties, ‘PLS 141’. This pea produces fancy four-inch pods and has a very good eating quality. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
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- ‘Sugar Ann Og’ is an early, edible pod pea that’s ideal for small gardens. Its short, bushy vines do not need support, and it produces about 10-days earlier than other snap peas.
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- ‘Sugar Sprint’ is a variety that is almost stringless. These peas are one of the earliest maturing types of peas that are also ideal for eating fresh or frozen.
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- ‘Oregon Giant’ has sweet peas inside large sweet flat pods.
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- ‘Royal Snow’ peas have large pods, and a mild bitter flavor. They’re great for salads and slaws. The color stays purple, but turns muddy when overcooked.
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- ‘Avalanche’ peas are tender, sweet, six-inch edible pods that add rich flavor and depth to salads and stir fries.
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- ‘Premium Treated’ is a very flavorful early pea variety, with a three-inch pod that carries an average of seven or eight very sweet, medium-sized peas in each.
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- ‘Maxigolt’ is an outstanding late variety with large, very sweet, dark green peas and attractive, broad, three-and-a-half inch pods.
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- ‘Feisty’ peas are very sweet, and medium sized. They generally average about six to eight peas per pod. The 30-inch vines produce many tendrils, but few leaves, which makes harvesting a bit easier.
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- ‘Sienna’ peas are very flavorful for a mid-season variety. The pods are about three-and-a-half inches long and provide about seven to eight peas per pod.
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- ‘Penelope’ has extra long fancy pods, with eight to nine peas per pod. They are very easy to shell and have very good eating quality.
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- Some pea seeds, Pisum sativum, will look wrinkled. Most of them have hard coats, and all benefit from soaking before planting. Ryan will soak them overnight in warm water. This will expedite the germination process.
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- Each pea variety is in its own container filled half full with water, so the peas are well covered. Only soak seeds for about eight to 12-hours and no more than 24-hours. Over-soaking them could cause them to decompose. When removing the peas, discard any that have floated to the top of the water – these are not viable and shouldn’t be planted.
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- The next morning, using a strainer, Ryan thoroughly drains them and also remove any broken seeds or seed fragments.
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- The pea is among the oldest cultivated vegetables in the world. Peas were found in excavations in Switzerland dating back to the Bronze Age. Peas were also very popular foods with the ancient Greeks and Romans.
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- Peas are known to help fix the nitrogen content in the soil, but need an inoculant added to their soil to do this. Rhizobium leguminosarum is a nitrogen fixing bacteria that is often added to soils where peas and lima beans are planted.
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- Garden inoculants are available at most garden supply stores. Ryan sprinkles a little inoculant powder onto the drained peas.
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- It is not possible to over inoculate, so don’t worry about how much is added to the peas.
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- Once the inoculant has been added, Ryan lightly mixes the peas to make sure they are all well coated. The inoculant will boost the pea plants.
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- Peas are one of first crops we plant outdoors at the beginning of the season. This collection of peas may seem small, but in a couple of weeks, Ryan will plant a second batch in a couple weeks to keep the produce coming.
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- When ready to plant, Ryan starts by digging a shallow furrow in the soil using a hoe.
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- Peas do much better when given some kind of support such as a fence or a trellis. Since the furrow is up against this fence, the pea vines should find the supportive wire very easily.
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- Ryan fills out the appropriate markers for the peas for easy identification during the season.
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- And then places the containers of peas in front of where they will be planted to ensure there is adequate space for all of them along this fence line.
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- Ryan then drops the seeds into the furrow about one to two-inches apart.
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- Sow seeds four to six weeks before the last spring frost, when soil temperatures reach 45-degrees Fahrenheit.
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- Ryan places another big marker into the soil to indicate the snow pea section.
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- The last section to be planted is the shell peas. Ryan places the large marker and once again drops the peas about an inch or two apart.
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- Once all the seeds are in the ground, Ryan covers them with an inch-and-a-half of soil. Ryan uses this narrow rake to also tamp the seeds gently, so there is good contact between the soil and the seeds.
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- After covering the area with soil, Ryan will give the newly planted peas a good drink. The peas will be watered deeply once a week and should be ready to pick around mid-June to early July. Have you planted your peas yet? Please share some of your first spring gardening tasks in the comments section below. I am always eager to hear from you.
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