Every vegetable that bursts out of the ground is a gift to me. The wispy little feathers of emerging carrots, the blink-and-they’re-there sprouts of lightning-quick radishes, and the first true leaves of a tomato plant — heralding the impatient wait for it to grow and produce the fresh tomatoes of summer. Peas, however, are extra-special.
它们在年初种下的种子比其他许多花园中的种子都要大,它们的突然出现在视觉上和情感上都值得关注;这是一个希望的信号,冬天已经过去,新鲜的绿色即将再次覆盖大地。
I enjoy cooking with tomatoes warm from the sun, arm-length zucchini, and shiny, onyx-dark eggplant but must admit, I hardly ever cook with peas. They never make it into the house. They are garden candy, sweet and juicy and way too tempting when one passes the food plot. I should plant more, I guess. Maybesomeday there will be enough!
If your recollection of peas is limited to the pasty, nasty things that squish out of a can and offer little else than a rank smell, let me introduce you to peas as they really are — sweet, delectable, preservable, and truly easy to grow, no matter where you are. Read on to learn more about planting, maintaining, and growing peas.
Planting Peas
True peas (P. sativumvarieties) are a cool-weather crop, growing best in the very early spring or the fall. They’re one of the first, encouraging sprouts to break ground while the rest of the world is waking up from winter slumber.
You can plant them directly in the garden at the frigid beginning of spring — about 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost date — peas don’t care if they get snowed on! Gardeners in zones 2 through 9 will have the best success with true peas, but don’t fret if you live in warmer climates. Pigeon peas or cowpeas may then be more your style.
For fall plantings, get seeds in the ground about 10 weeks before the first expected frost. You may need to protect the heat-sensitive seedlings with shade if a fall heat wave passes over your area. Fall-planted peas usually won’t produce as much as their spring-sown counterparts, but they will give you something to enjoy while the majority of the garden begins its decline.
Unlike many seed varieties, peas don’t mind crowding. The more the merrier! Even 100 plants (in a successive planting pattern) shouldn’t be too much for a family of four to eat fresh peas, so let the plants rub shoulders and enjoy the benefits.
Since peas fix nitrogen into the soil (like the legumes they are), they don’t need the richest soil either. They’ll make it richer for everyone else. In fact, too much nitrogen in the soil will just encourage profuse leafy growth with few flowers, and few flowers mean few pods.
Conditions For Growing Peas
基本上,你需要确保它们有充足的阳光、良好的空气循环和良好的排水系统。由于它们种植得很早,春雨可能是一个问题,会让土壤变得泥泞不堪。If you struggle with drainage in your garden, raised beds could be a fabulous answer to protect your growing peas.
Mulch them once they’ve reached at least 3 inches tall, and be sure to provide something for their merry vines to climb up as they grow. Some varieties don’t vine as vigorously as others, but all will require and benefit from some sort of trellis. If they are planted close enough together, they can even provide support for each other as they continue their upward climb.
豌豆有娇嫩的小卷须,所以最好的棚架要有网或绳子来抓。或者,你也可以选择传统的豌豆支撑方式,用3到4英尺高的粗壮的多臂树枝支撑,底部削尖,插入地面。
Related Post:15 Trellis Plants For Your Wall, Pergola, And Arbor
Growing peas in pots is an option if you are limited to a container garden, but most varieties are not ideal for containers. All peas want to vine to some degree, though some varieties grow much longer than others. They range in length from 2 feet to truly lengthy 6-foot vines, so read your seed packages carefully.
Regardless of what cultivar you choose, you’ll be sure to enjoy some pretty flowers. When you’re growing peas you’ll notice that they make truly lovely blooms! If you are able to find it, theTom Thumb Garden Peais an ideal container plant as it does not notably vine and usually reaches a diminutive height of 9 inches.Little Marvel Garden Peais another good choice for containers as it is a bush-type and typically bears heavily.
If you do plant a vining type, look for one that has around 2-foot vines such asCascadia,Lincoln,orSnowbird.Set a tomato cage in a large pot, plant several seeds, and guide them as they grow. You’ll have a flowerful and delicious-podded centerpiece on your porch in no time.
Pea Pests And Diseases
我曾经遇到过蚯蚓截断我的豌豆植株生长的问题。如果它们真的是你花园里的一个问题,用锡纸环把新植物的嫩基包裹起来,可以让毛毛虫呆足够长的时间,让豌豆自己生根。如果你确实遭受了损失,试着尽快重新种植豌豆,补上已经吃完的豌豆。
Another pest that can cause havoc with your pea plants is the pea leaf weevil. As with cutworms, they only affect young plants, so the two best keys to defeating these bugs is to rotate planting locations and fertilize well. Well-fed peas will grow quickly and will soon be able to grow past any bug damage.
A third issue to your pea harvest may be the presence of adult weevils and their larvae in your harvested, dried peas. If left unchecked, they’ll eat and reproduce continuously. Thankfully, controlling weevils is as simple as allowing the harvested peas to be frozen for at least 48 hours.
I like to freeze my dried harvest twice and allow it to warm to room temperature for a few days between each freezing cycle. This method ensures that any eggs that somehow escaped the effects of the first freeze (and are triggered to hatch in the warmth) will be quickly killed with the second freeze.
鸟类和兔子也喜欢豌豆。鸟类经常会自己从地里挖出新的幼苗来获取种子,而兔子则可以通过啃食一夜之间将一片土地清理干净。如果它们有问题,花园周围的铁丝网可以保护它们不受毛茸茸的小偷的伤害,而捕鸟网可以保护它们不受毛茸茸的小偷的伤害。
To be honest, however, peas are pretty laid-back as far as garden plants go. The real threat to them is heat as it will totally shut them down, so make sure to plant them as early as you can before the summer steals your sweet-podded treats away. Peas can germinate, albeit slowly, in soil as cold as 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so don’t be shy!
Harvesting Peas
Most peas are ready to pick about 60 to 70 days after being planted, but you can maximize the short window of spring pea-growing with several tricks. First, stagger your plantings of the same cultivars, adding more seed every 10 days or so.
Second, try planting several cultivars that mature at different times.Sugar Annis a snap pea that requires only 55 days, for example. Or trySnowbird, a snow pea that usually matures in 58 days, and gives you early picking while you wait for other varieties to reach maturity.
The more peas you pick, the more peas your plant will make. Just be sure not to yank them off the vine. Pinching or cutting them will keep the plants from getting stressed or damaged.
For green shelling peas — like the kinds you see the frozen aisle — harvest when the pods have filled out but are still bright green and fresh-looking. Flat, sweet snow peas are ready when the pod has reached full size, but before the seeds begin to swell.
Related Post:Plant-Based Protein: The Definitive Guide
Snap peas are ready after the seeds have reached their full round shape and while the pod is still tender. The more you work with your plants, the more you’ll develop an innate sense of when the time is ripe for pods to be plucked.
当然,如果你想要一个干燥的、可储存的收获,你需要剥了壳的豌豆荚发育到干燥成熟。让豆荚完全枯萎并变成棕色,然后在干燥的房间里放置来加工豌豆。让去壳的豌豆晾干至少三个星期,然后将它们存放在密封的容器中,避免阳光照射。你也要提防豌豆象鼻虫。如果有必要,你可能需要把收获的果实冷冻起来,以防止虫子吃掉你所有的辛勤劳动。
Pea Varieties
When reading up on the varieties of peas available to plant, you may be shocked by the sheer number of different types. Trying to choose between the hundreds of cultivars may make your head spin. Some have edible pods. Some are only grown for their seeds … and some aren’t even safe to eat.
更让人困惑的是,每一种豌豆都有几个不同的名字。为了给你一个内线,这里有一个方便的小指南来帮助你找出可能列在种子目录中的术语。
Garden Peas/English Peas/Shelling Peas
“Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold” as the old rhyme goes. And though the idea of fermented, 9-day old porridge may be positively foul to our modern tastes, the dried seeds of shelling peas have been a European staple for hundreds of years — well before true beans made their way from the Americas to the rest of the world.
Related Post:Growing Green Beans
Shelling peas are, true to their name, eaten after the seeds have been removed from their tough, stringy pods. The seeds can be eaten fresh, or harvested after they have matured and dried. You see these in stores as split peas.
Snow Peas/Sugar Peas/Edible-Podded Peas
Snow peas (P. sativum var. saccharatum) got their name from the fact that they were and are often grown in open fields during the winter. Snow peas are typically eaten while the thin, flat pods are immature, tender, and sweet. As the entire pod can be eaten, the logic for another common name for this variety is obvious. “Mangetout”– from the French for “eat all.”
Sugar Snap Peas/Snap Peas
A relatively recent creation of the 1950s, sugar snap peas (P. sativum var. macrocarpon) are a cross between snow peas and mutant shelling peas. As a result, rather than growing flat like snow peas, snap peas are round, and can also be referred to as “mangetout” because the entire unripe pod is also edible.
Plants Called Peas That Aren’t Peas
There are several additional genera of plants also called peas that aren’t technically peas. These not-peas can also make a wonderful addition to the homestead garden, so they’re worth looking up!
Cowpea
While not technically in the pea family,these legumesare still a fantastic crop for the beginning gardener. Tolerant of heat, drought, and poor, acidic soil, cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) were part of many historical homesteader’s first gardens when they reached their land allotment.
Available in a rainbow of colors, cowpeas are edible as “green beans” if picked when young. They can be shelled and dried for a long-term storage crop, fix nitrogen in the soil, and can even be used as a hay crop.
Pigeon Pea
Another heat-tolerant legume,the pigeon pea(Cajanus cajan) is a perennial that is grown widely in warm and tropical areas, usually zones 9 through 15. They’re an important staple in many parts of the world as they can be grown in sun, shade, and soil of any quality.
Sweet Pea
With a name like sweet pea, you’d thinkthis varietybelongs alongside some mashed potatoes and beef. The truth is, the sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) should be nowhere near your dinner plate. It’s borderline toxic! Grown for its lovely annual blossoms, the sweet pea is named for the intoxicating aroma of its flowers, not its flavors.
你和我一样爱吃豌豆吗?请在下面的评论中告诉我你最喜欢的品种、食谱和阻止鸟类的想法!
Leave a Reply