Pisum sativum var. medullare
Wrinkled pea
Common names: Marrowfat pea, Garden pea
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 5 cm, rows 40 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Mar–May
- Harvest
- Jun–Jul
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −4 °C
- Water need
- Medium
- For children
- Well suited
Description
The wrinkled pea yields the classic sweet, green table peas, its seeds are ripe and dried, wrinkled because they store especially much sugar instead of starch. You eat only the seeds and discard the pod. Fresh from the plant it outshines every frozen pea.
Care instructions
Sow the seeds from March to May about 4 cm deep in shallow furrows and set up a trellis or netting early. Keep the soil evenly moist, especially during flowering and pod filling. Harvest when the pods are plump yet still juicy green; overripe peas become mealy.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–May
HarvestJun–Jul
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, lime-loving, nutrient-rich
Give the wrinkled pea a deep, loose soil with good drainage. It does not tolerate waterlogging, and heavy, compacted clay soils or pure sand are unsuitable. It likes calcareous to neutral conditions: if the pH is below 6.0 you should lime, otherwise the nodule bacteria that fix nitrogen hardly work.
Legumes collect nitrogen via nodule bacteria and are an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders. They themselves need a break of around 4 years in the same place.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
Before sowing in spring (March to April), work a little ripe compost shallowly into the soil; that is enough for the pea as basic supply. Under no circumstances feed nitrogen-heavy or give fresh manure: as a legume, the wrinkled pea gets its nitrogen from the air via the Rhizobium nodules, and too much N only promotes disease and delays ripening. Only on very lean soils can you sparingly add a little horn shavings at sowing.
Overwintering
The wrinkled pea is an annual and dies after harvest. You overwinter nothing, but sow anew outdoors in spring (from March/April). If you want your own seed, let a few pods turn brown and dry on the plant, harvest the seeds, dry them further and store them cool and dry.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate the wrinkled pea exclusively from seed. Vegetative methods such as cuttings or division make no sense for this annual legume. Wrinkled peas are more sensitive to cold than shelling and sugar peas, so you sow them somewhat later, usually from mid-April directly outdoors, as soon as the soil has warmed (germination from about 6 °C, faster from 8 to 10 °C upwards). Insert the seeds 3 to 5 cm deep and keep a row spacing of 30 to 50 cm; within the row you can leave about 5 to 15 cm between the seeds, depending on the height of the variety. Peas are self-pollinators: the flowers pollinate themselves before opening, so you can easily grow on seed from healthy, strong plants of your favourite variety. For this, let some pods ripen and dry completely on the plant until they rustle brown and papery and the seeds rattle inside, before you shell them. Afterwards dry the seed gently for another one to two weeks (not in full sun or in the oven) and store it cool, dry and dark. This way it stays viable for two to three years, longer with optimal storage. If you want to keep several varieties true next to each other, keep around 15 m between the varieties or simply propagate only one variety per season, to minimise the rare but possible cross-pollination by insects.
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 cabbageKalebroccolicauliflowerBrussels sproutPalm kale and 39 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 CeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCorianderCelery (Stalk Celery) and 20 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 ChivesWild daffodilRocamboleElephant garlicRed OnionShallot and 9 more species in the catalogue
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 Wrinkled pea yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
Notes from real gardens
What other gardeners have written down about this variety, anonymous and voluntary.
No notes shared yet. Will you be the first to write one down?