Peas-English or Shelling

Pea is a frost-hardy, cool-season vegetable that can be grown throughout most of the United States, wherever a cool season of sufficient duration exists. For gardening purposes, peas may be classified as garden peas (English peas), snap peas and snow peas (sugar peas). Garden pea varieties have smooth or wrinkled seeds. The smooth-seeded varieties tend to have more starch than the wrinkled-seeded varieties. The wrinkled-seeded varieties are generally sweeter and usually preferred for home use.

The smooth-seeded types are used more often to produce ripe seeds that are used like dry beans and to make split-pea soup. Snap peas have been developed from garden peas to have low-fiber pods that can be snapped and eaten along with the immature peas inside. Snow peas are meant to be harvested as flat, tender pods before the peas inside develop at all. The Southern pea (cowpea) is an entirely different warm-season vegetable that is planted and grown in the same manner as beans. Peas thrive in cool, moist weather and produce best in cool, moderate climates.

Early plantings normally produce larger yields than later plantings. Peas may be planted whenever the soil temperature is at least 45°F, and the soil is dry enough to till without its sticking to garden tools. Plantings of heat-tolerant varieties can be made in midsummer to late summer, to mature during cool fall days. Allow more days to the first killing frost than the listed number of days to maturity because cool fall days do not speed development of the crop as do the long, bright days of late spring. Plant peas 1 to 1-1/2 inches deep and one inch apart in single or double rows. Allow 18 to 24 inches between single or pairs of rows. Allow 8 to 10 inches between double rows in pairs. Pick pods when seeds have enlarged in pod before sides bulge.

Nutrition Facts (1/2 cup cooked garden peas) Calories 67 Dietary Fiber 2.4 grams Protein 4.3 grams Carbohydrates 12.5 grams Vitamin A 478 IU Vitamin C 11.4 mg Folic acid 50.7 micrograms Iron 1.2 mg Potassium 217 mg Magnesium 31 mg Nutrition Facts (1/2 cup cooked snow peas) Calories 34 Dietary Fiber 1.4 grams Protein 2.6 grams Carbohydrates 5.6 grams Vitamin C 38.3 mg Iron 1.6 mg Potassium 192 mg Magnesium 21 mg (Approximately 1500 seeds per Lb)