Peas are one of the most valuable spring plants in the organic garden — a nitrogen-fixing legume that improves the soil for the next crop. Cold-tolerant, early-sown, quick to crop. 🫛
Varieties
| Variety | Pod | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Shelling pea | Not edible | 60-150 cm |
| Snow pea (mangetout) | Whole pod edible | 60-100 cm |
| Snap pea | Thick, crunchy | 60-120 cm |
| Dwarf pea | Varies | 30-50 cm (no support needed) |
Sowing times
| Sowing | Harvest |
|---|---|
| Feb.–March (early) | May–June |
| March–April (main) | June–July |
| July–Aug. (autumn) | Oct.–Nov. |
Do NOT sow in summer — heat sterilises the flowers!
Care
- Sowing depth: 3-5 cm, row spacing: 30-40 cm, plant spacing: 5-8 cm
- Support: trellis, twiggy sticks, wire mesh
- Watering: little until flowering, generous during pod development
- Don’t fertilise with nitrogen — they fix their own!
Harvest
- Pick every 2-3 days — the more you pick, the more they produce!
🔗 Related articles
Summary
Peas: nitrogen fixing + early sowing + quick harvest. Plant them ahead of nitrogen-hungry crops in your rotation. 🫛
- Why shouldn’t peas be fertilised with nitrogen, when most vegetables love it?
Rhizobium bacteria living on pea roots convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plant can use, making peas essentially self-sufficient for nitrogen. If fertilised with nitrogen anyway, the plant becomes “lazy” — it stops cooperating with the bacteria because it finds an easier path to nutrients, which in turn means the soil doesn’t get enriched with nitrogen for the next crop, defeating one of the main benefits of growing peas at all.
- Why does summer heat sterilise pea flowers, when other legumes tolerate warmth well?
Pea flower pollen is particularly sensitive to sustained heat above 25°C, since the protein structure of the pollen grains denatures at such temperatures before it can successfully fertilise the stigma. As a result, flowers still form, but no pods develop from them — this is a completely different mechanism from drought tolerance, which is why regular watering doesn’t help with it either.
- Why do peas need picking every 2-3 days, and why does more frequent picking increase yield?
A pea plant’s biological purpose is to ripen seeds and disperse them, so as soon as one pod starts ripening and its seeds harden, the plant receives a hormonal signal to reduce production of new flowers and pods. Regular picking removes the ripening pods that trigger this signal, so the plant keeps producing new flowers and pods, because it “thinks” it hasn’t yet managed to create enough seed.
- Why do taller pea varieties need support, when dwarf peas manage without it?
Taller pea varieties (60-150 cm) develop a thin stem armed with tendrils, which alone isn’t strong enough to hold the whole plant upright — the tendrils evolved specifically to grip other plants or objects and climb toward the light. Without support the stem would flop onto the ground, where leaves and pods in contact with damp soil would easily rot, and harvesting would become far more awkward too.