How to get some PEAS

[JayPoc]

All this talk about growing peas... makes me want to grow peas this year for the first time, I'm more of a green bean guy:)

James- when do you start sowing your peas in the ground, soon or now I'm assuming?? I'm guessing or hoping to start planting within 2 weeks as long as the weather finally shifts for the better...

Any kind of variety you guys recommend??

Yes now is a good time to plant peas here. They are a cool weather crop and you can plant them early Spring as soon as your soil is dry enough to work. Mine is about there.

Varieties? I like Little Marvel for fresh eating peas, and Lincoln or Victory Freezer for freezer peas. Wando is a good one for later as they do well in warmer weather.

You blanche 'em first of straight to the freezer?

[hendi_alex]

Definitely not an either or type of thing. My peas have just started blooming. My green beans are up, but harvest is probably five weeks away. So about the time that the peas are through, the beans will take over.

[jal_ut]

You blanche 'em first of straight to the freezer?

Blanch them.

[JayPoc]

So all you are saying, is give peas a chance?

[sepeters]

Hendi, that surprises me, because I get poor performance out of peas of any kind in the spring here. But, the south is not the southwest, I guess. The only luck I have ever had is with snow peas in the "fall/winter" if you can call our seasons fall and winter. I usually just refer to them as "not summer."

I am giving peas a chance, as JayPoc suggested. This year I planted them here and there in the raised bed, where I had the space, just to see how they would do. The two that got the most sun got quite large very quickly and I harvested a whopping 5 pea pods from them...before they shriveled in the sun and were dead in a 2 day period. The rest followed them in short order.

Yesterday I noticed some very weird tendrils behind the cucumber and dove in to find one of the peas had crawled along the ground, under the cucumber and is thriving on the trellis, shaded by the bigger plant. After much sleuthing and inspecting I also discovered one more survivor growing between two tall vertical tomatoes on a trellis! Both had little flowers opening up on them! Neither of them seems to be getting even indirect sunlight, so I am not sure how they are surviving but seem to be the best I've done with spring peas so far!

[LGT]

How long will peas last in the freezer? My Grandma gave some to me a few years back and I just found them in the bottom of the freezer. They don't look freezer burned but am wondering if I am wasting my time cooking them.

[Gary350]

Jal is right. Plant peas close enough they climb on each other. You don't need stakes.

One think about peas, harvest quantity compared to planting quantity is a very low ratio compared to other seeds. You plant 1 pea seed your harvest maybe 50 pea seeds. You have to plant a lot of pea seeds to get a large harvest.

Unlike other crops, corn for example 1 seed produces 500 to 800 seeds. 1 tomato seed produces 5000 seeds. 1 bell pepper seed produces maybe 4000 seeds.

Peas are one crop we usually eat only the seeds.

[TheWaterbug]

So all you are saying, is give peas a chance?

Visualize whirled peas.