Peas are an unpretentious and very useful culture. Its benefits lie not only in its rich vitamin composition, but also in the ability to enrich the soil with nitrogen. Pea seeds tolerate cold and even frost well, so they are planted early – at the end of April, so that by the beginning of June you can enjoy juicy young beans. Peas ripen in stages, so the harvest period stretches for 1-2 months: from the appearance of the first pods to the collection of dry seeds.
About peas
Pea is an annual herbaceous plant of the legume family with long decumbent shoots. Pea leaves are pinnate, with small stipules ending in several branched tendrils, with which the plant clings to a support and is held upright. Flowers – white, sometimes purple, are placed in the axils of the leaves singly or in small brushes. Pea fruits are bivalve beans, inside of which there are 5–10 spherical, sometimes slightly flattened peas.
Peas are one of the very first vegetable crops cultivated by man for household needs and for food. It is known that the first cultivars of peas were grown in ancient Greece, and in Europe they became widespread thanks to the Dutch, who were the first to bring and cultivate the plant.
Peas can be called a universal plant. Its use is diverse: young peas are consumed fresh and canned, dry beans are fed to birds, a wide variety of dishes are prepared from them, pea tops can be used as fertilizer – buried in the soil, or added to compost. The plant is an excellent green manure. In the upper part of its root system, small tubers are formed, which contain microorganisms useful for plants and soil, especially nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Varieties of peas are divided into two main groups: vegetable and grain. As a rule, vegetable peas are used for food, which, in turn, is divided into the following types:
- shelling;
- cerebral;
- sugar.
Shelling peas are intended for cooking first and second courses, they are sold dry in stores, however, at the beginning of their ripening, they have a mild, delicate taste, and during this period they can be eaten fresh.
Brain varieties are not subject to drying – they are used for food green. Brain peas have a very mild, sweet flavor and are canned, frozen, eaten fresh, and steamed. Sugar peas practically do not differ in taste from brain and shelling, but unlike them, its beans are devoid of a dense parchment layer. This nice feature allows you to use such peas with a bean (pod).
Peas of any variety are characterized by a long growing season and high yield potential. The first beans can be harvested about 30 days after sowing the seeds, but the process of ripening peas can last up to 70-100 days. This is due to the fact that the beans ripen in several stages, starting from the bottom of the bush and ending with the top, the growth of which is not limited.
Even when all the lower beans are harvested, the tops of the stems continue to grow, form new peduncles and ovaries, and this process can be very long. With proper care, the fruiting period of peas can be extended up to 140 days.
Landing
Peas are not grown in seedlings. Its seeds are sown directly into the soil, which is recommended to be prepared in the fall. This is due to the fact that plants do not tolerate fresh fertilizers well, but, despite this, they really need them. Therefore, you need to make top dressing in the fall for digging the beds.
As a fertilizer, you can use ash (50–70 g / sq. M) and compost (4–5 kg / sq. M), in their absence, the earth can be filled with potassium salt and superphosphate. Nitrogen fertilizers can be omitted, as the plant itself accumulates nitrogen compounds.
Before sowing in the ground, the seeds must be prepared. First, high-quality seed is selected, which will germinate for sure. To do this, there is one effective way: in 1 liter of water you need to dissolve 1 tbsp. a spoonful of salt, then pour all the seeds into this solution. Peas that have surfaced are unsuitable for sowing, and only those that have sunk to the bottom can be planted.
Sorted seed should be washed from salt and dried a little. Next, you need to choose a method for planting seeds. Some gardeners advise soaking the seeds for several hours in water at room temperature with the addition of a growth stimulator, after which they need to be washed and dried. Others advise sowing the seeds dry. Of course, seedlings in this case will appear a little later, but with this technique they will develop faster and become resistant to adverse factors, which will allow you to get a higher yield from future crops.
Before sowing peas, the bed must be loosened, leveled and watered well. Pea farming involves band sowing with a distance of 15 cm between the furrows. Seeds are planted to a depth of 5–6 cm and laid out in 2 pieces every 8 cm. After that, the peas are covered with earth, slightly compacted. For better germination, the bed can be covered with a film. Peas tolerate cold very well and germinate at a temperature of 5–8 °C.
Video “Sowing peas”
This video will show you how to plant green peas in a garden bed.
Care
Growing peas cannot be called difficult, but some features in caring for it must be considered:
- Shelter. At first, a bed with peas needs to be covered with a net, but dry unnecessary branches can also be used. The net in this case will serve as a shelter for seeds from birds, which are very active in getting and pecking out peas from the ground.
- Irrigation mode. Before flowering, pea bushes are watered once a week. With the appearance of the first flower stalks, the frequency and intensity of watering increases to 2-3 times a week at a water consumption rate of 10 l / 1 sq. m. In this mode, watering is carried out during flowering and the entire fruiting period (and it can be very long). It is necessary to constantly monitor the soil moisture, since its drying is fraught with the fall of peduncles and ovaries.
- Loosening. This procedure must be performed after each watering, otherwise a crust may form on the ground, making it difficult for the plant to grow and access nutrients to it. When the bushes grow to 15 cm, they need to be spudded.
- Support installation. If you do not have standard peas, which are distinguished by stable and non-creeping shoots, but ordinary, curly ones, then it is necessary to install supports or trellises. Otherwise, the stems will cling to everything they reach, and also intertwine with each other. This will lead to the fact that the bed will turn into a solid carpet, and the plants themselves will shade each other, which, of course, will affect the yield.
- Top dressing. For the entire growing season, peas are fed twice: shortly before flowering, and during the formation of the ovary. Peas love microfertilizers with organic additives, for example, humus, but complex mineral mixtures can also be applied. If pests, aphids or pea codling moths (caterpillars) appear on the plants, it is recommended to spray the bushes with garlic infusion: pour 300 g of crushed garlic with a bucket of water, leave for 10 hours, spray the plants with a solution once a week.
Collection
The first pea crop can be harvested 30–35 days after sowing. Sugar and brain varieties are used for food when the peas are not yet ripe – it is at this stage that they have a sweet and very delicate taste. To prevent overripe, peas should be harvested at least once every 1 days.
If the pod has become light and dense, and a white mesh has formed on it, this means that it is overripe, and the peas themselves have become hard and tasteless.
If you do not need to collect peas for seeds, then it is better to remove overripe pods, as they delay the maturation of newly formed ovaries. Pluck the beans from the bush should be carefully, holding the stems with one hand so as not to be damaged.
If it is intended to obtain dry beans for further planting or other purposes, then it is necessary to leave the pods on the bush until fully ripe. When the lower beans begin to turn brown and dry out, the bush is cut off at the root, tied into a bundle, which is hung up for 2 weeks in a dry ventilated room or under a canopy for further ripening.
Two weeks later, the most full-weight (heavy) pods are selected, cut with scissors or torn off by hand, after which dried peas are removed from them. You can get the peas by lightly pressing on the bean flaps. Next, you need to select high-quality seeds (deformed and blackened are immediately rejected) and dry them at home.
In general, peas are a very high yielding crop. Regular abundant watering will help to significantly extend the fruiting period, and providing normal conditions and proper care will allow you to harvest up to 5 kg per 1 sq. landing meters.
Video “Collecting peas for seeds”
Thanks to this short video, you will see how peas are harvested for seeds.
