Garden peas Pisum sativum are cool-season crops. Barbara H. Garden peas Pisum sativum L. English peas are shelled and only the seed eaten, whereas edible-podded peas are eaten whole. Edible-podded peas take two forms, the full-podded snap pea with large seeds and the flat-podded snow or sugar pea with undeveloped seeds. Wrinkled-seeded varieties of peas generally are sweeter than smooth-seeded varieties and are preferred for home use.
Garden peas are cool-weather plants that can withstand frosts and light freezes, although the blossoms cannot. The plants suffer in the heat and humidity of summer, so plant pea seeds as early in spring as the ground can be worked. Fall plantings are not recommended. Early and mid-season varieties are recommended for South Carolina. Plant in full sun to ensure maximum flavor and sugar content. A single row consists of seeds sown in a straight line, whereas a double row consists of a set of 2 single rows spaced 2 to 4 inches apart.
A wide row ranges between 6 and 18 inches in width, with the seeds broadcast in the row rather than sown in straight lines.
The width of a hoe blade makes a convenient row width for garden peas. Regardless of row type planted, space rows 2 feet apart. Pea trellis. Cory Tanner, Clemson Extension. Peas are legumes and use Rhizobium bacteria that live in nodules along the root system to take up nitrogen from the air and convert it to a useable form. To increase the numbers of these helpful bacteria, especially in newly planted ground, pea seeds can be treated with Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viceae.
The bacteria can be purchased as a wettable powder that is applied to the moistened seed before planting, or in a granular form that is applied over the seeds in the row. Pea plants, even dwarf varieties, benefit from some type of support, so provide netting, trellis, wires, or pea brush for the tendrils to cling to.
