by Mac Pike

Created on: December 12, 2010

Peas, sweet, tender and fresh from the garden plot to the kitchen pot are one of the most eagerly anticipated vegetable treats of early summer. Fresh peas are so much more flavorful than are the canned or frozen products or even those found in the produce aisle of the local supermarket that almost every home gardener has them penciled in on his garden planner. 

Peas, also known as Piso Sativum by the botanical purists are easy enough to grow. But to realize a truly bountiful yield of this tasty veggie a few tricks of the trade need to be employed. 

Plan ahead: 

Don’t plan the pea patch during the depth of winter or while the snow is melting in early spring. Start during fall garden cleanup for a simple jump start on next years’ crop. First, remember that peas and other legumes should never be planted in the same spot two years running and rotate the pea site with a non legume vegetable. 

Next, deep dig the site where the pea patch will be and add lavish amounts of compost in the fall, as much as six inches. Peas love organic material, or rather the food that beneficial microbes make from it, and having this mixed into the ground ahead of time is effort well spent. This is particularly true as most gardeners plant peas very early in the season when both the ground and the compost pile are cold, sloppy and difficult to work. 

Warm the soil: 

All the seed company literature says that peas may be planted as soon as the soil can be worked, and this is true. But unless the gardener is engaged in an active competition to put the first peas on the table, this course of action should be resisted. Wait an extra week or two, let the temperature rise a little, and permit the soil to drain a bit. Then, when the weather report indicates that a few sunny days can be expected cover the prospective pea patch with black plastic sheeting and allow the suns heat to raise the soil temperature a few more degrees. 

Germination will be superior and more reliable as a result, with a positive effect on total yield. 

Plant the seeds about an inch apart and an inch and a half deep and thin to three inches apart when the seedlings emerge. Space the rows about nine inches from one another. 

A word about inoculants: 

Inoculants are available that add an extra dose of those nitrogen fixing bacteria that work so well with organic soil amendments to produce nutrients for pea plants. If the gardener has added copious amounts of compost

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