Love delicious, sweet peas? These beginner garden tips share how to grow peas including the best soil temperature for sowing seeds. The pods are sweetest right after picking but you can also enjoy the pea shoots all season long.
Plus, you can also grow peas indoors.
How to Grow Peas
Peas | Genus: Pisum
Pea Growing Tips
Annual vegetable, botanically a fruit
• Full sun
• Soil: well-draining and fertile
• Cool weather crop
• Self-pollinating
• You can also grow peas indoors
Shop Online: Buy pea seeds at Botanical Interests (US shipping)
Peas are easy to grow, beautiful, and delicious, and can be eaten during all stages of growth from pea shoots to fresh peas in the pod.
Growing Peas 101
1Read The Seed Packet
- Seed growers want you to succeed and the good ones tell you what you need to know.
- Each variety will have different characteristics including the days it will take from seed sowing to harvest.
- Check the packet for recommended sowing depth, soil conditions, temperature, and more.
- And if it’s not, look it up online and keep track of what you plant so you’ll know your favorites for next year.
2Prepare for Height at Sowing Time
- Most dwarf varieties grow like little bushes reaching 2 to 3 feet tall.
- Tall vine peas can reach 6 to 9 feet tall.
- Check your seed packet and plan ahead, using twiggy sticks or trellis for support.
- The tiny tendrils need to grab on to something while they grow and it’s much easier to harvest if the shoots have spread out.
3Planting Options
- You can grow peas indoors (with grow lights) and outdoors in containers, raised beds, or in the ground. Lots of options!
- I grow my outdoor peas both in sun and semi-shade, keeping the roots covered with mulch so they stay moist and cool.
Types of Peas
Shell Peas | Podding Peas
- You can eat the shoots and peas but not the pods (they’re tough).
- Shoots (new tendrils with fine leaves) can be eaten at any time. I clip them off throughout the growing season and add them to my daily salads. Delicious!
- Pick the pea pods when they feel plump and juicy (not hard).
Snap Peas (Sometimes Also Called ‘Sugar Snap Peas’)
- The shoots, peas, and pods are all edible.
- Pick them any time – eat young ones whole. Older ones may be better with shells removed.
Snow Peas & Sugar Peas
- The shoots, peas, and pods are all edible.
- Snow peas tend to be more tolerant of heat than other types of peas.
- Pick when pods are at least 2” long or peas start to swell. Peas inside should be tiny or flat.
- Pick often and the plant will keep producing more.
- If overgrown, remove pods (they get tough).
About Pea Flowers
Pea flowers are self-pollinating which means they do not need assistance to fertilize and this also means you can grow peas indoors under grow lights right through to harvest time.
4Growing Conditions
Your vegetable garden should have:
- Rich, moist garden soil (but not damp).
- Well-rotted organic matter.
- Sun but not too much heat.
5Soil Planting Temperatures
Plant Peas in Spring When the Daffodils Bloom!
It’s an old-fashion bit of advice but still quite helpful. It’s tempting to plant the seeds earlier but they really do favor warmer soils so it’s best to wait.
If the daffodils are happy, the peas will germinate nicely.
The optimum soil temperature for sowing peas is 77°F (25°C).
Minimum is 40°F / 5°C.
This has a list of best sowing temperatures for popular garden veggies and herbs.
A kitchen meat thermometer with a long probe is perfect for checking soil temperatures. Measure over a few days and take the average to know when it’s time to sow.
6Time to Plant
Outdoors in Spring
- Raised beds or containers – 6 to 8 weeks before last frost (cover at night if necessary).
- In ground – 5 to 6 weeks before last frost.
Outdoors in Summer (for a fall harvest)
- 10 to 12 weeks before first fall frost (choose dwarf varieties)- mulch when plants are 6” high to keep the roots cool and moist.
Indoors (for an indoor harvest)
- Plant any time – use grow lights 12 hours per day.
Protect Your Pea Seeds & Seedlings
- Cover early plantings with frost covers (see them at Amazon.com) if temperatures drop.
- Use upside-down dollar store mesh waste baskets to cover small amounts of seedlings from animals.
- Cover raised beds with garden screens if munching and digging animals are an ongoing problem.
7Outdoor Succession Planting
By planting a few varieties and/or staggering the planting times, you can have a nice, long harvest time.
Three Options
- Plant an early variety (check seed packet to see what type it is) every 4 weeks until midsummer (though harvest times may collide anyways).
- Do a single sowing of all varieties – early, second early, and main crop varieties.
- Start a fall crop in midsummer (10 to 12 weeks before first fall frost).
Taste Your Peas Every Day
- The best way to get to know your peas and their best harvest time is to taste them every day once the pods have formed and you know they should be ready soon.
- There’s a magical few days when the peas and/or edible pods reach their maximum sweetness and it’s not to be missed: daily taste tests will ensure you catch them at the perfect time.
- Once they’re picked, eat them (or refrigerate or freeze them) as soon as possible before the sugars change to starch.
Don’t Forget the Shoots
- What a lot of people overlook is that you can pinch off and eat the shoots throughout the life of the plant. The shoots can be as sweet and delicious as the best peas.
- The shoots, peas, and pods can be eaten raw or cooked. Taste them freshly picked and there’s no turning back.
Disease Note
If you see a gray-white powdery coating forming on your peas, it could be powdery mildew. The type that affects peas is called Erysiphe pisi. This discusses powdery mildew prevention and treatments.
8Pea Pod Harvest Time
- Average is 3 months after planting (check your seed package for specific times).
- As said, do taste the shoots, peas, and pods throughout the growing cycle. If you wait until a final harvest, you will miss out on some really delicious stuff along the way.
- Pea pods mature at the bottom of the plant first, working upward. Check the bottom pods first for ripeness.
- Pick ripe peas/ pods right before you eat them. The sugars quickly turn to starch. Alternately, get them into the fridge or freezer as soon as possible.
9After Final Harvest
- Do not pull the plants from the ground. Cut them down to ground level and leave the roots where they are. The white nodules on the roots are filled with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (good) that enrich the soil for future plants.
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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛
Growing Vegetables
A Weekly Indoor & Outdoor Seed Sowing Plan for Beginners
by Melissa J. Will
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