Growing peas

Who can resist freshly picked peas eaten straight from the pod? I certainly can’t, and every cool season, I reserve more space to grow them. That way, once I’ve had my fill of fresh peas in the patch, there’s a decent harvest left for the kitchen.

Many pea varieties are tall climbers, so it’s mainly vertical space they occupy. I also grow some bush types that demand more room in the beds but are highly productive. I like them for their shoots too – the lovely tender growing tips – which taste just like peas and give you an early harvest for salads and stir-fries long before the pods are ready to form.

Getting started

While peas like it cool, the flowers don’t tolerate freezing conditions, so if you’re in an area that gets regular frost, wait for late winter or early spring to make a start. Everywhere else, get cracking now to take full advantage of the growing season.

Find a sunny spot in your vegie patch and enrich the soil with compost and well-rotted cow manure. There’s no need to add high-nitrogen fertilisers because peas are legumes, which can draw nitrogen from the atmosphere. Do check your pH, though. If it’s below 6, add lime or dolomite. The drainage must be good, so if your soil is heavy, mound it along the planting rows.

Tall-growing varieties need something to climb on – a chain-wire fence, a trellis or even a teepee made from bamboo poles will do. Install this before planting. Bush types are relatively self-supporting when they’re grown in blocks of two or more rows, 40–50cm apart. However, they still benefit from a simple support – a stake in each corner with twine wrapped around the outside – to keep them from flopping onto the neighbouring crops.

Sowing the seed is easy. Make a drill 3–5cm deep, dribble in seed 5cm apart and cover. The seed is prone to rot, so water in well, then allow soil to dry before re-wetting. If you’re expecting wet weather, or you’re short on space in the patch, start seed in multicell punnets, three per cell. Pea seed germinates within a week or so.

Growing and harvesting peas

Birds may take a liking to young sprouted seeds. If it’s a problem, cover seedlings with a net or wire cloche. Baby climbing plants need support too. Insert tiny twigs as stakes to lift them up and guide them towards their trellis or teepee.

Once they’re up and running, it’s just a matter of keeping the soil moist and waiting for plants to start flowering and producing pods. This normally starts to happen about eight weeks from sowing. The pods develop reasonably quickly once they’re initiated, so check plants regularly to make sure you pick them at their best. You’ll know it’s time when the pods for ‘shelling peas’ have just become plump, with the peas inside still sweet and tender. When left on the plant too long, they become tough and bitter. Sugar snap peas, which are eaten pod and all, are best picked before the peas inside have expanded to full size. For the crunchiest snow peas, harvest as soon as the flowers fall from their tips.

Plants may succumb to powdery mildew disease, but it’s often when they have pretty much finished. If infection creeps in early, apply a potassium bicarbonate fungicide to keep it manageable.

Header image credit: iStock

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