Preparing and Planting Peas
Everybody is thinking about the spring gardens, including all of us here at my Bedford, New York farm. We’ve already planted many seeds in the vegetable garden - radishes, carrots, parsnips, and the season’s first 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.
-
- 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.
-
- All the peas benefit from soaking before planting. These will soak overnight in warm water to expedite the germination process. Ryan places each pea variety in its own container and fills it 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.
-
- Some of this season’s peas are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. ‘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. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
-
- This is one of Johnny’s newer varieties, ‘PLS 141’. This pea produces fancy four-inch pods and has a very good eating quality.
-
- ‘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.
-
- Row 7 Seed Company’s ‘Beauregarde’ Snow Pea is bred to bring more flavor, and more purple color. These high-anthocyanin, wavy-podded snow peas hold their vibrant color when cooked. Wait for small peas to develop in the pod to reach full flavor potential.
-
- Row 7 Seed Company also makes this ‘Trial Snow Pea Mix’ – a colorful snow pea blend that combines a purple Beauregarde pea with a green, wavy-podded type.
-
- These are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Missouri. The fuschia purple flowers give way to tasty, fat purple pods on strong and vigorous plants that love cooler weather. This variety makes a delicious soup pea, or picked young as a purple snow pea.
-
- This ‘Bistro’ variety is tasty and productive. It makes compact plants with an upright habit that’s also easier for harvesting.
-
- ‘Maxigolt’ is an outstanding late variety with large, very sweet, dark green peas and attractive, broad, three-and-a-half inch pods.
-
- ‘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.
-
- This collection of peas may seem small, but in a couple of weeks, Ryan will plant a second batch to keep the produce coming.
-
- The next day, Ryan brings all the soaked peas down to the vegetable garden to plant and makes appropriate markers for easy identification through the season.
-
- Ryan thoroughly drains each container and also removes any broken seeds or seed fragments. Always discard any that have floated to the top of the water – these are not viable and shouldn’t be planted.
-
- Peas are known to help fix the nitrogen content in the soil, but need an inoculant added to do this. Rhizobium leguminosarum is a nitrogen fixing bacteria that is often added to soils where peas and lima beans are planted. Garden inoculants are available at most garden supply stores. Ryan sprinkles a little inoculant powder onto the drained peas.
-
- 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. It is not possible to over inoculate, so don’t worry about how much is added to the peas.
-
- When ready to plant, Ryan starts by digging a shallow furrow in the soil using one side of a bed prep rake from Johnny’s. Hard plastic tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows for planting. 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.
-
- Ryan places the appropriate markers along the row to identify snap, shelling and snow peas along with their varieties.
-
- Ryan then drops the seeds into the furrow about one to two-inches apart.
-
- Sow seeds four to six weeks before the last spring frost, when soil temperatures reach 45-degrees Fahrenheit.
-
- Once all the seeds are in the ground, Ryan covers them with an inch-and-a-half of soil and then tamps gently, so there is good contact between the soil and the seeds.
-
- Ryan planted the seeds just before it rained, so our new crop was well watered. The peas will be watered deeply once a week and should be ready to pick around mid-June to early July.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
