Growing peas through a hot summer

[brookslike]

I'm planning on planting some peas this year, and I've heard that they don't do very well during the hot months of the summer. I've read some interesting articles on mulch, and I've heard that light coloured mulch (sawdust for example) can reflect sunlight and keep the soil very cool. Would this help my peas last through the summer? Maybe a combination of growing in the shade of my cucumber plants and some light reflective mulch? Any other tips or ideas on how to help cool month crops continue to produce in warmer weather?

[hendi_alex]

Ontario! What summer? I would believe that you have a good chance of keeping most cool weather plants growing through the summer. Your idea of light colored mulch makes sense, maybe provide some kind of shading during the hottest part of the day, perhaps use some selectively placed shade cloth or place the plants where they get natural shade in the warm afternoon.

[brookslike]

haha, now now, let's not give the impression that Canada is full of igloos here. It gets quite hot in the dead of summer (mid 90's F... sure it may not compare to other places, but hey, it's incredibly uncomfortable weather), and unfortunately pretty humid as well (which is definitely the worst part).

I wonder, there are plenty of green houses... is there such a thing as a cold green house specifically for growing cool weather crops? Maybe I can build a plexi-glass box of sorts that lays over the crops, with an array of water filled tubes that run below the ground surface and back through the box... it would act as a radiator, and it would cool down the contents of the box with cooler sub-soil water. Maybe I'm just letting my mind drift too much...

[applestar]

You would need to succession plant seeds every 2 or 3 weeks, since most peas has a flush period then die down. (Check your seed catalog) Commercial varieties are usually pick all at once, some back yard varieties produce a little at a time over a longer period.

I always plant some peas where they will get the first morning sun and are in afternoon shade. They take longer to germinate (ground stays cooler there longer in spring) but the plants last longer into the heat.

Your biggest issue will be the humidity -- stressed by the heat, they will be susceptible to fungal problems. 10% milk spray for sure.

There are Shade Houses, which are like Green Houses except covered with shade cloth material (instead of polysheeting) sold in % shade -- I was just perusing a catalog that listed from 40% shade to 90% shade. You could do the same with hoops and shade cloth.

[soil]

I grow them in shade during summer. they grow well enough to give you food thats for sure.

[brookslike]

That's definitely reassuring.

[applestar]

@soil -- What varieties do you grow and have found to do well through the summer?

[gixxerific]

If I may add saw dust is probably not a good mulch to use. Actual sawdust will rob the soil of nitrogen as int decomposes.

[soil]

applestar I cant give you a variety of what I grow now, the original seeds were acquired locally with no name from a fellow gardener and I saved my own seed from then on.

I have had good success with others from the store though too( various snow peas, snap peas, sugar peas). but I stopped buying seed, or at least as much as I can.

[brookslike]

That's great, Soil. I'm hoping to save seeds from this year as well. And Gix, can you think of something else that may do the same job? I'm thinking maybe old straw or something.

[applestar]

Prime example of WHY you should save seeds -- Soil is selecting for summer survival! Great job!

[Farmer Dave]

I just planted my second planting of peas and I should have peas from about June 15th to Mid July based on a Late March planting and a Mid April planting. I live in Northern CA and it gets hot here sometimes over 100. I have grown them through the summer before by cooling them off with overhead watering for about 1/2 hour a day in the heat of the day. They made it and produced peas but were not nearly as abundant as my spring plantings. If you want try it plant your peas every two weeks. I like sugar snap peas I think there the best
Note on sawdust, keep it out of your garden as it robs the soil of nitrogen and acidifies the soil.
I just got back from an outrageous trip to Ecuador visiting the native Sequoian people in the Amazon basin and seeing their agriculture and life was very inspiring. You can see some of my pictures on Farmer Dave face book.
Great to do something wild once in a while!

[84pagirl]

ive ordered miragreen pea seeds from gurneys, they're spposed to produce all summer...hope so

[Gary350]

I plant peas every year in August. After the corn has been picked I clean the lands and till the soil. I plant peas in rows. It MUST be watered with plenty of water to get the seeds to grow. Soil dries out so fast if I don't water it 4 times a day the seeds sprout and die. Once they get to growing they do better. When the weather cools in Sept plants frow faster. In October they do excellent and I harvest about late Oct.

Peas are always skimpy crop even if I sow the seeds like grass seeds lots of plants in a 1 ft wide row 20 ft long.

You can also sow the seeds in the snow. Then the weather gets right they grow. Peas are ready to harvest about the same time it gets warm enough to plant the garden.

[Ozark Lady]

I have never gotten green peas to grow. But, a friend wanted me to do a trial planting this year. He sent three items to trial, green peas, tomato, and some beans.

So far, they are up and just starting to climb their little support I made them. They are in a bed, so I just installed pvc pipe at the boards and put chicken wire across it. It is 3' high so, I think they can climb that. There are 2 rows, so I located it in between the two so they can go up each side of it.

So, once they set a crop of peas do I simply remove them? Or will they continue? I don't have any other green peas to replant them with.

I normally grow or attempt to grow beans and field peas, since they both take the heat better.

[applestar]

So, Gary, I want to understand the concept of Fall planting for peas better.
You harvest in late Oct. Peas are usually 72~75 days to maturity +1 week for fall = 79~82 days. That brings planting time to around 2nd week of August. Does that sound right? In my case, I would need to harvest early Oct, so sow the peas around 3rd week of July?

I having such a hard time with this technique -- peas as well as other fall harvest of "cool weather" crops -- because it turns out you need to sow seeds or plant transplants at practically the hottest time of the year!

[Ozark Lady]

Apple, use shading. Put your fall cool season crops, underneath the leaves of your summer crops. Let them "nurse" the fall ones.

Then when you remove for instance your cucumbers, or squash, there is your fall crop, coming along nicely.

[farmerlon]

I plant peas every year in August. After the corn has been picked I clean the lands and till the soil. I plant peas in rows. It MUST be watered with plenty of water to get the seeds to grow. Soil dries out so fast if I don't water it 4 times a day the seeds sprout and die. Once they get to growing they do better. When the weather cools in Sept plants frow faster. In October they do excellent and I harvest about late Oct.

Great info for me, I live in your area.
What kind of Peas are you planting for that Fall crop?

For moisture retention, have you tried a "light mulch" over the seed bed? Perhaps, a very light layer of grass clippings would cut down the number of times that you're watering, and help keep that seed bed cooler?
Certainly not a thick mat of grass mulch; but just a "light sprinkling" to shade the soil a bit from the sun & wind.

[Gary350]

So, Gary, I want to understand the concept of Fall planting for peas better.
You harvest in late Oct. Peas are usually 72~75 days to maturity +1 week for fall = 79~82 days. That brings planting time to around 2nd week of August. Does that sound right? In my case, I would need to harvest early Oct, so sow the peas around 3rd week of July?

I having such a hard time with this technique -- peas as well as other fall harvest of "cool weather" crops -- because it turns out you need to sow seeds or plant transplants at practically the hottest time of the year!

That sounds about right. I plant peas pretty close to the first week of August after my corn crop is gone. I have trouble getting them to grow in August it sometimes takes close to 2 weeks to get them to come up. It is too hot here I have to water them a lot just to get them to germinate. Once they are up I think that is when you start counting the days. I notice my peas do fine with frost I'm not sure if all peas do good with frost. If I can get my peas up and growing by mid August I can harvest late Oct. We sometimes have frost by Oct. Once the weather get cooler the peas take off and grow much better. We have a lot of wet weather in Oct so that makes some nice big peas. Peas don't produce a lot so I plant my seeds close together. I sprinkle the seeds on the ground in a wide row about 10 to 12 inches wide so the seeds are pretty close to 2" apart.

Last year I didn't plant many peas my row was only about 6 to 8 inches wide. My tomatoes all died from blight so I put all the tomato cages in the pea row. It was pretty darn cold when I picked the peas and I didn't get many. After they were removed from the pods I had about 1 quart jar of peas. I left my plants there all winter they died and dryed up and pulled them up in the spring.

If you plant 1 pea the plant grows maybe 30 pods. Each pod has maybe 3 or 4 peas. Ok so you get about 100 peas per plant. Thats not a lot of peas you will starve to death. Plant a lot of seeds close together the plants grow like kite string with small leaves so you can grow a lot of plants in a small space. I am no expert pea grower there might be a better way. I personally think growing pea is a waste of good garden space that could be used to grow something better. Only reason I grow peas is because I can grow an early crop that is gone by the time I want to plant other things and I can grow a late crop after other crops have finished. I don't know much about peas I have been growing Alaska Snow Peas only because the name seems to imply maybe being from Alaska they can tolorate a little frost. Is that stupid of what. Farmers co-op doesn't have much of a selection of peas anyway. It might me a lot smarter to do some research on peas instead of buying something just because it has the word Alaska in the name.

Years ago I planted Sugar Snap Peas. The neighbor lady told me to throw the seeds out into the snow and when the weather gets right they will come up. She was right they came up all over the garden and I harvested a lot of peas.

[applestar]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I'll adjust the planting time to around July 4th~7th then. Now I have my strategy

I like Ozark Lady's and farmerlon's ideas to sow the peas under the shade of existing plants (especially since, with my shorter season -- AND limited space, the crops will have to overlap) and to use some light mulch. I can use the ash from the firepit to sprinkle the seeds with, as per Emilia Hazelip video.

My kids LOVE peas and I really want to be able to freeze a lot for the winter. I have lots of pea seeds left -- Tall Telephone Pole and Lincoln, so I'll be trying to grow those.

[applestar]

Oh wait! I just went to update my notes and found a quote from jal_ut posting:

PEAS - If planting in warm weather it is good to presprout them. They sometimes are balky to germinate when the weather is hot.

Here is how I presprout seed: Put the seed in a quart bottle and fill the jar with water. Let soak over night. In the morning drain the water off and invert the bottle on a paper towell sitting on the counter. It works best to hold the towell over the top of the jar as you turn it over and set it down. This lets any excess water come off the seed, but holds the humidity high. Each evening and morning take up the bottle and rinse the seed with lukewarm water, drain and again invert the bottle on the paper towell. It takes two or three days usually to see a root emerge on the seed. As soon as you see this go plant them. Don't wait until the roots get long.

I'm going to try this too.

[TolanIsMaximus]

We've had about a month straight of nice 65-75 degree, sunny days here, and I don't know why half of my peas are yellowing, and the other half are still growing! In fact, the ones further west are about 7-8 feet tall, and show no signs of slowing their growth. On the other side, my peas are yellow, and starting to brown, and the leaves are getting brittle. Am I overwatering..? It wouldn't seem likely since the peas nearest the sprinkler are the ones still growing. It's been dry for over 30 days, sunny for more than 25 of those...mostly between 10am (when the fog burns off) until around 7pm or so. I've enjoyed quite a bounty of peas so far, and it looks like I'll more than double what I've already eaten, frozen, and given away...but these yellow buggars are bothering me. My green beans look like they may be yellowing a bit too. Can anyone help?

Tolan