I planted peas 5 weeks ago. They're just now starting to come up. So far I've only seen only three seedlings out of whole packet of seeds. I just noticed the third seedling today. What are the chances of the rest of them coming up?
Good pea seed in good conditions will sprout in about 7-10 days. If things are not right (eg the soil is too cold, too dry, the seed is bad, etc etc) it will take longer or not happen at all. Without knowing what conditions you planted them in or anything about the origin or quality of the seed it is a guess.
David
about where are you located?
hard to say, but three plants (if they survive) can provide enough seeds for a second crop later in the season. so perhaps all will be fine.
i'd give the weather more time to warm up and then try another packet of seeds to fill in the empty spaces. make sure the forecast is for warm enough weather with some sunshine.
around here it's been too cold, frosts last night and tonight. i won't be putting any peas out for a while yet. they're one of my favorite crops.
good luck, :)
songbird
That, indeed.
I tend to go with "as early as the ground can be worked and I can find the time" for planting peas. Mine have been out there through a few sleet storms now, and are not up yet - might be a couple of weeks now. I'm not worried.
Peas are a cool-weather crop, and they don't mind a bit of frost. If the seed is current, or no more than ~2 years past date, and nothing has eaten it, they will come up when ready. If you have had birds drop by and pull them up as soon as they sprouted, that's a different matter. If moles or something have polished it off from below, likewise. If it's been dry, not much will happen (you could water them...).
My final attempt at growing Eliot Coleman's favorite cold-weather salad plant (Mache or cornsalad) has also been out there, and I think the sleet may have done the trick. Not really sure, as I've never had any luck growing the stuff, which is why it's my final attempt - unless of course it actually grows this time and I actually like it. Something is coming up where I planted it, though I think the first something was, in fact, weeds - I'm not sure what the stuff looks like when small, since it has never worked for me before. Last year it probably had an excuse, as it was 90F and dry in March. Perhaps it should go in with the garlic in the fall. The garlic is pretty happy this year. Sorrel and hops are also good.
Mice and birds also love sprouting peas.
The problem with sowing in cold ground is that provides more opportunity for the seeds to be taken or destroyed while waiting for the temperature to rise. In the worst case fungus can get those the rodents etc leave and you have few or none.
D
I'm in north central Kentucky. I've always planted peas around the middle of March but this year it's been exceptionally cool this spring.
Farm1 wrote: ...
hey, there you are! welcome back. :)
songbird
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...
a lot of snow storms went south of us this spring. we've had plenty of rain. i won't be planting much for a bit yet.
when i plant peas in warm enough ground and there's some sunshine they'll sprout in 4-5 days. i know they can survive frosts, but i'd rather give them a quicker start so i know what takes and it gives weeds much less of a chance to get going.
songbird
Whatever works for you, works for you.
Last night it got down to 25F (at the airport 2 miles away - didn't see any ice on the pond this morning, though it was quite brisk) and peas are starting to appear. Having never practiced the excessive data and/or diary approaches to gardening I'm guessing two weeks - I normally like to have them in April 1st if possible and am pretty sure I didn't, so it was probably the following weekend.
Works for me. If I waited for warm ground I feel like I'd lose weeks of pea growth, and production time before they fry up in the summer.
Two more plants are up today. That brings the total to five. At this rate they should all be up by August.
I sure hope not.
Peas grow rather fast, I'm in Chicago and we have sort of a crappy growing season, technically like May 15th to Oct 15th, but if you have any luck, you can get things in the ground around Apr 1.
This is my 4th year for peas, in the past, for reference, using the plain old Burpee seeds/pods from Home Depot, the average plant-to-seed ratio is around 35%, meaning with 200 seeds planted, I only get like 60-70 plants that actually spring up.
I don't know where you are at but you got them in the ground early enough. Peas just don't like heat. From what I understand, they'll start dying off and stop producing when the soil temp averages 75F. So they are like cool weather plants.
Again here in Chicago, if I can get them in early april, by mid-june they are going whole hog, but start dying out by the 4th of July. Anything that is still there afterwards is hard and fiberous.
Once they sprout, they will grow rapidly and start showing pods early in the growth cycle. Because I have to use cages to protect everything from squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, possums and birds (yes we have all of those here), they get up to about 4 feet, but will show pods around 18 inches.
Also keep in mind they need some help, there will be small tentacles that come out, looking for something to grab on to, hopefully verticle. Without that, they'll start to grab each other and eventually end up as a big knotted mess.
There probably is 101 things you can use but what I ran across which comes in handy for other things besides stablizing peas is a bundle of ceiling hangers (for suspended ceilings) that Home Depot sells. There are something like 50-60 "rods", 4 feet long, are fairly stiff but can be bent or cut as needed. The bundle is something like $15 or less and like I said, just comes in handy for numerous things.
They are easy to push into the ground around the plants and are stiff enough to stay upright.
The bad news, if you do end up with just 5 or 6 plants, there isn't going to be much eating there. At best each plant only seems to produce 10-12 pods, but on average it's half that. Some book I read recommended something like
40-45 plants per person, to harvest enough. It's probably right, for all the ones we grow, maybe 2 decent sized servings and enough left for being tossed into salads.Honestly though, even though they are a low-production plant, the damn things are so tasty, it's worth it.
-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com
I grew some peas last year for the first time and had just enough to have snacks right off the plants. They were so tastey I thought I'd try to grow some more this year. First, I started about a dozen plants in peat pots and then planted those and they are tall enough now to grab the fencing with their little tentacles, but it seemed like I had room between those plants, so I poked holes in the ground between each one and planted more seed. I was wondering just how close you can plant peas and not be too close?
The current seed packet says 2 inches apart. I suspect that may be favorable more to the seed seller (use more seed) and perhaps yield per foot of row without being as favorable to yield per plant or total yield per number of plants (if you have more room.) My current patch is something approximating 6 inches apart. more than 8 or 9 inches is probably too sparse. If you are space-limited, the tighter spacing is probably better.
I wonder if there are trials data available on different spacings (though of course that would depend on what type they were using, at least until enough trials with enough different types were run to get any general results....
I think I will try the 2 inches apart planting and see just how well that works out.
I've noticed little pin holes in some of my peas foilage. Are those from flea beetles? I sprinkled some diatomaceous Earth on and around the plants to see if I can nip that problem in the bud!
Natural Girl wrote: ...
i plant them four inches apart. if there are any large gaps where seeds don't sprout i stick a few in to fill, but mostly what happens is they grow all over each other anyways. i think they generally work like soybeans in that the plants will limit each other to a certain level of production based upon soil nutrients, water, sunlight and trellis space (if used).
as of yet i've not had a poor germination rate, but certain peas seem to grow better in different soils. one of the large pod varieties (OSPII) i have didn't do well in the heavy clay area i planted them to start, but i'll try them again this season in a more regular garden soil area.
i have a generic soup pea (good for fresh peas, pea pods and then the dried peas) which does very well in both clay and regular garden soil. it's also nice in that it has tons of tendrils so it will self-support if planted in blocks. as it grows it looks like a pile of green steel wool as the leaves are on the stem, but are dominated by the tendrils.
the other three varieties of peas/pea pods i've grown seem to be ok for heavy clay, i haven't yet tested them in regular garden soil.
so far my list of varieties is:
Dwarf Grey Sugar Pod Early Alaska Little Marvel Oregon Sugar Pod II Soup Pea
i'll likely continue to try more varieties out as i come across them (i'm sure there are many).
good luck :)
songbird
I looked at my peas yesterday and new seeds have now sprouted that I planted in between the spaces of the other peas. I don't remember the variety I planted, though, but they were tastey eaten right off the plant! That's about as much room as I had for peas.. just enough for me to eat some here or there .. not enough to cook a plateful.
How much do you plant?
...
around 3,000-5,000sq ft. depending upon how you count it. if you count spaces that get weeded or have to be kept after then it comes to around an acre, but not all of that space is veggie gardens or even planted. a large part is mulched with either wood chips or limestone and decorated with rocks or whatever...
this morning i planted one 10x10 garden with
30ft of soup peas (in the middle so i don't have to get at those very often) and then out side of those i have rows of beets and onions. on very edges i have about 80ft of dwarf grey sugar pods. i have so many seeds of these from last year that i'll use them as a cover crop. we really like snacking on them. used 40lbs of worms/worm poo in a layer underneath the beets and onions. this evening i raised up a part of another garden so i can get it settled in and planted next week.those are about 1/30th of the space i have to prep and plant with annual veggies (tomatoes, beans, more peas, dry beans, peppers, more onions and beets, turnips, edamame soybeans, cucumbers, squash, melons... then keep up with the herbs, strawberries, rhubarb and some things i'm sure i'm forgetting. :)
plus there are other gardens and decorative spaces. i don't do too much with annual flowers (cosmos and flax) but Ma has a few gardens she seeds in. most of my efforts are aimed at the edibles, spring bulbs and redesigning the landscape. we have almost two acres -- almost half that is gardens or decorations, the rest is wild spots, trees, shrubs or ditches.
songbird
wow .. you're garden is much larger than mine is... Do you do organic gardening? That's been my passion for a long time!
Natural Girl wrote: ...
yes, i think i'm on year four now where i've been using other methods. some losses here or there, but we've worked around or left things be and it went ok in time.
songbird
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