:)Ī note on timing: If sown early enough (in the PNW, sometime in March), direct seeded peas tend to catch up with transplanted peas once it comes time to start producing. If you forget to remove your bird netting, your plants will start to get caught in the netting and you’ll have created a new issue for yourself to negotiate. Be sure not to break any of the growing tips on your pea plants as you do this. After your peas have grown to about 3 inches in height, gently remove the bird netting. If you are having pest issues, sprinkle your planting with iron phosphate (to keep the slugs at bay) and drape some bird netting over your bed. You can fill in a spotty row with new seeds and the later-planted ones often catch up with the original row. Crows and other birds love eating them whole. If your seed doesn’t germinate at all, or germination is spotty, gently dig around your seeded row and see if the seed is still there. If you notice that your new sprouts are getting mowed down by slugs or birds, just reseed as soon as possible. If you’re a home gardener and want to direct seed, just keep an eye on your plants! The direct-seeded peas usually germinate within a week. As the season progresses and the weather starts to warm up, the window for planting peas closes, so we want to get them established as early as possible to ensure an extended pea harvest. This means that if we direct-seeded peas in a garden and the new sprouts were munched by a bird, it would be a week or two before we noticed and could replant again. We visit the majority of our gardens on an every-other week basis. We find that transplanted peas are more resistant to this type of damage. We tend to transplant peas because birds and slugs love newly buried pea seeds and tiny pea sprouts. Q: Should you direct-seed or transplant peas? The plants are too heat stressed to produce a good fruit set. Mid-July tends to be when gardens are the fullest, so there often isn’t space to plant a second round of peas. We’ve found that this technique can be tricky for many home gardeners for a few reasons: Technically, you can also try planting peas for fall harvest by direct-seeding them in early to mid-July. They don’t germinate or grow well when temperatures get above 75☏, so it’s best to sow them early! Direct-seed peas mid-March through late April. Over-planting reduces air circulation and makes your plants more susceptible to mildew.Ī: You can set out transplants as early as late February and as late as mid-May. If you do plant them this close together, space rows several feet apart. Peas can grow well when spaced close together, so don’t be afraid to pack them in a little. Q: How close together can you seed/transplant snap, snow and shelling peas?Ī: Pea plants should be spaced 1-2 inches apart. Broadly speaking, peas mature* in about 58 days and are a cool-weather crop. The questions on planting timing were specific to the Pacific Northwest, so I’ll address them within that context. Snap peas are harvested before they are fully mature on the vine and usually eaten whole with the shell on. Shell peas are typically grown to maturity on the vine and then the shell is removed before eating. This blog addresses snap and shelling peas (aka. To keep the Q & A as simple as possible, I’m using the following guidelines: I’ve created this post to help answer your pea-growing questions and set you up for success!Īfter reading the Q+A section of this post, if you still have questions about growing peas, or just want to learn more, scroll down to the bottom where you’ll see links to older blogs and podcast episodes we’ve created on the topic!Īs with our previous post, the following questions are commons inquiries that we’ve been receiving from our followers on Instagram: I’ve never eaten a pea that has tasted as good as the ones I grow in my home garden and I want to you have the same experience. We often quote our book “ Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard” and say that fresh snap peas are a reason unto themselves for having your own garden.
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