One of the easiest and most rewarding vegetable, cold hardy peas are planted early and are harvested early. I tend to prefer snap peas over shelling peas since you can easily eat them pod in all but there is no reason you cannot choose, plant both types.

Remember, the first step for seed growth is imbibation so to jump start this with your peas, you can soak them in water 12 hours before planting to fully engorge the seed with water. There is evidence that this will improve the speed of germination but may also increase the risk of some disease. This year I did not presoak my peas but lucky for me it did rain (and snow) for several days following planting, the perfect scenario to get those peas to imbibe. I recommend trying the soaking if it your first time planting to be able to see and understand how water is absorbed into the seed. You will start with a shriveled up little pea and wind up with something that resembles a fresh pea off the pod.

Back in the day of abundance, I used to plant my peas with powdered inoculant that I bought from a store. Inoculant is basically a collection of millions of rhizobia bacteria that otherwise live in the soil. These bacteria have a symbiotic relationship with legumes (of which peas are one.) The bacteria inhabit the legume roots and create nodules where they live. From here, the bacteria is able to use the plant to absorb atmospheric Nitrogen from the air and convert it into usable ammonia (the nutrient that contains Nitrogen and Oxygen that plants can use as a nutrient source). This process is called Nitrogen fixing.

This day I do not have any inoculant so I am hoping for the soil’s natural rhizobia to do their best. This is one of the reasons that I used compost in the base of my potted pea planting. It adds bulk to the bottom of the pot and is filled with natural microbia. I also add a top layer of potting soil or pasteurized soil to help suppress any lingering weed seeds. It should be noted that there can be greater risk of trasnferring plant pathogens in the soil this way but I plant my seeds directly into the soil in the compost amended garden soil anyway so the risk is the same both ways.

Peas require a climbing structure to twine around. In the garden, we plant the peas along our 7’ deer fence on the east end of the garden. We used to plant on the peas on the outside of the garden to ease the picking, but we finally realized that the chickens were waiting for the delectible sprouts and would sneak them out of the ground when we weren’t looking. Now we plant on the inside. When we plant in the raised bed or pot, we need to create a trellis of sorts. Ours is simply a bunch of branches from the woods, shaped into a teepee and tied at the top.

Plant the peas next to the climbing structure 1” down, 2” apart and firmly replace the soil. Remember, peas need darkness to germinate. The next thing to do is water and keep watered so that the soil is consistently moist. You may start seeing sprouts in 7 to 15 days depending on the soil temperature.