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Vegetables · annual
Pea (garden, snow and sugar snap) from seed
Pisum sativum · also searched as snow peas, sugar snap peas, peas, companion plants for peas, pea trellis
- Germination temperature
- 65 to 75°F (18 to 24°C)
- Minimum soil temperature
- 40°F (4°C)
- Sowing depth
- 1 in (25 mm)
- Days to germinate
- 6 to 15 days
- Light
- Cover the seed; darkness helps
- Before sowing
- Nothing needed
- Sow outdoors
- 4 to 2 weeks before the last frost
- Spacing
- 4 to 6 in (10 to 15 cm)
Your dates from your last frost Seed not coming up?
Sowing
Sow direct as soon as the soil can be worked, about 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost; peas germinate in soil as cool as 40°F (4°C). Put a trellis in at sowing.
Care and transplanting
Keep the soil evenly moist and tie in tendrils. Peas stop cropping in summer heat, so sow early.
Problems
Seed rots in cold, waterlogged soil; sow in a raised bed or wait. Mice and birds dig up seed. Powdery mildew on mature plants is common late in the season.
Saving seed
Leave a few pods to dry brown on the vine, shell and dry the seed fully. Peas self-pollinate so they come true.