When to plant peas in your garden?
Peas cannot be sown at any time of the year if good harvests are intended. In this article, we will tell you when to plant peas. As in each place, the climate is different, we will first give some general guidelines on the demands of pea cultivation. In this way, everyone will determine the sowing date that best suits the climate of their region or locality.
When to plant peas?
The pea likes cool temperatures. Hot, sunny days greatly shorten the production period and the plants soon begin to collapse. It resists cold and frosts well when the plants are young but not once the flowers or tender pods are present. Regarding the availability of water, it is critical during the formation and filling of the pods, a period in which it cannot be absent in the soil.
Considering these simple requirements, it will have to be sown once the summer temperatures cool down but avoiding that, the flowering and the formation of the pods coincide with intense frosts.
Beware of the winds and the rains
Although they are not very frequent in areas with moderate to strong winds, they should be taken into account when planning the best time to plant the pea.
Once the plants reach about 15 cm, the intense winds – especially if they are gusty -, shake them from one side to the other, producing bruises in the lower part of the stem and breaking it completely.
Although the wind does not break the stems, it leaves them so damaged that many plants perish and the others have serious difficulties continue developing normally.
To avoid this damage, several things can be done:
✦ Sow them at a time such that the strong winds coincide with the very small or adult plants (they will have already been attached with their tendrils)
✦ Carry out a very dense planting so that the plants protect each other, or sow them among other vegetables that serve as support and defense from the winds
✦ Place a horizontal mesh or net about 20 cm from the ground, suspended in the air and held on rods or sticks. So, the peas slip through the holes in the net and hold onto it with their tendrils.
The problem of rain is very important after planting the peas and before they germinate.
What happens is that if after sowing, it rains a lot or for a long time, the earth will get too wet, and this is fatal. Many seeds rot before or during germination, which results in many failures or misses. Only some of the sown peas emerge from the ground. If this happens, the only solution is to re-seed them.
Knowing this, sowing must be done when good weather is expected and when the soil temperature is high enough so that germination does not take too long. The later it is, the more likely it is that there will be heavy or prolonged rains.
In climates with cold and long winters
In regions with a cold climate, with late frosts – even well into spring – they should be sown in late winter or early spring so that when they reach flowering, there is no risk of frost.
In climates with mild or short winters
In this type of climate, they can be sown from autumn to early spring, being better to do it in autumn since the harvest is usually more abundant in early plantings than in late ones.
In addition, if they are sown before the soil gets too cold, germination will be much faster, and problems with rotting, eaten seeds, etc., will be avoided.
In equatorial climates
They tend to be warm for a good part of the year, so peas will have to be sown when temperatures are expected to be lower. Otherwise, production will not be very good.
