Pisum sativum
Pea
Common names: Garden pea, Sugar snap pea
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 5 cm, rows 40 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Mar–May
- Harvest
- Jun–Aug
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −2 °C
- Water need
- Medium
- For children
- Well suited
Description
The pea is a nitrogen gatherer that improves the soil for the following crop, and at the same time the sweetest snack straight from the bed. Sugar snap peas are best eaten raw, pod and all.
Care instructions
Sow from March directly into the bed and give climbing cultivars an early support of brushwood or netting. Peas need little fertiliser but even moisture during flowering; then the pods fill out plump.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–May
HarvestJun–Aug
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 5 °C, ideally 15 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 4 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained
Peas want a humus-rich, deep, well-loosened loam with good aeration. Waterlogging and compaction harm the nodule bacteria and with them nitrogen fixation. Heavy clay soils and pure sandy soils are less suitable; if the pH is below 6, lime before sowing, otherwise the rhizobia will not do their work.
Legumes collect nitrogen through nodule bacteria and are an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders. They themselves need a break of about 4 years in the same spot.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
As a legume, the pea largely supplies itself with nitrogen through nodule bacteria. So do not give it any nitrogen fertiliser, as this even disturbs the symbiosis. In spring before sowing, work a little mature compost shallowly into the soil; this provides phosphorus and potassium organically (phosphorus promotes nodule formation). No further feeding is needed during growth.
Overwintering
The pea is an annual and dies after harvest. There is nothing to overwinter; you sow fresh every year (standard summer peas outdoors from March; they only tolerate light frosts down to about -4 °C). Special winter pea varieties can be sown directly in autumn; as small young plants they survive harder frosts and give an earlier harvest, but they too remain annual.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate the pea exclusively by direct sowing outdoors. Sow in rows from March, as soon as the soil has warmed to at least 5 °C (shelling and field peas) or around 8 to 10 °C (wrinkled-seed and sugar peas), and carry on until June. Place the seeds about 3 to 5 cm deep and 8 to 10 cm apart, with a row spacing of 40 to 50 cm. Germination takes place at a soil temperature of 6 to 20 °C within about 7 to 14 days. Medium and tall varieties need support from the start, such as pea sticks, netting or string. For your own seed, choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid (not F1) varieties: mark healthy, typical plants early and leave the lowest pods on the plant until fully ripe, until they are brown and dry and the seeds have gone hard. Then shell the peas, leave them to dry for a few more days in an airy, shaded spot, and store them cool, dry and dark. Because peas are self-pollinating, varietal purity is largely preserved without any special measures; if you grow several varieties, keep them a little apart to be safe and save seed from several plants to preserve the variety’s diversity.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRomanescooil radishYellow mustardRocket and 20 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example CeleriacDillParsleyCorianderCelery (Stalk Celery)Fennel and 16 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example PumpkinCourgetteButternutHokkaidoPatissonSpaghetti squash and 13 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example Wild daffodilSnowdropornamental garlicAgapanthus lilyWild garlic
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Pea yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
Varieties
6 varieties‘Ambrosia’
A sugar pea of the Kaiserschote type, where you eat the whole flat pod young and tender.
‘Blauwschokkers’
An old Dutch caper or gray pea with striking violet‑blue pods and two‑tone rose‑purple flowers, a real eye‑catcher on the fence.
‘Frühe Heinrichs Riesen’
The ‚Frühe Heinrichs Riesen’ is a productive, seed-fixing marker pea with long, well-filled pods on tall-growing plants.
‘Kelvedon Wonder’
An early wrinkled pea with compact growth that needs only a low support of twigs.
‘Kleine Rheinländerin’
An old German shelling pea from the Rhineland with low, self supporting growth that gets by with little in the way of support.
‘Norli’
An early sugar snap pea of low habit that suits small beds, raised beds and even large containers on the balcony.
Notes from real gardens
What other gardeners have written down about this variety, anonymous and voluntary.
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From the magazine
Peas: marrowfat, round and mangetout, three types compared
A pea is not just a pea: the robust round pea, the sweet marrowfat pea and the crisp mangetout each have their own character. Here is how to choose the right type, sow early into the bed and harvest from the bottom up, entirely without nitrogen fertiliser.
A snacking garden for kids: quick wins at eye level
How to build a snacking bed with children that pays off in weeks. From radishes and sugar snap peas to snacking herbs, plus the poisonous plants that have to stay out.
Build Your Own Trellis and Support: Sizes for Beans, Cucumbers, Peas
Build plans with real measurements for a bean teepee, a cucumber trellis and a pea frame, put up in CW 14 to 18, before you sow.
June: The First Big Harvest and the Beds in Full Swing
June brings the first big harvest: strawberries, peas and kohlrabi fill the basket. At the same time, sowing for autumn carries on, and the first pests need keeping in check. Your plan for early summer.