Growing peas through a hot summer

[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