How to Grow Peas in 6 Easy Steps: Gardening for Beginners
Peas are a fun, easy vegetable to grow. Most varieties are ready for harvest in just 60 days! Learn how to do it in How to Grow Peas: Gardening for Beginners!
There are many kinds of peas you can grow, including shelling, snap and snow types. My kids’ favorite is Blue Snow Pea, which is dark purple in color!
Types of Peas
There are three kinds of peas commonly available on seed racks: shelling, snow and snap peas. The pea pods pictured above are actually field peas, They are usually grown, dried and ground into feed for animals, but can also be harvested green and used as shelling peas.
How to Grow Shelling Peas
Shelling peas have a tough, fibrous pod that is usually not eaten (it does make a good treat for backyard chickens, though!). Harvested when the pods are full and dark green, the peas are removed, or “shelled”. These are the normal green peas you find canned or frozen in the grocery store.
Shelling peas are the same amount of work to grow as other varieties, but can be a lot of trouble to shell, and won’t yield as many pounds of food because the pods are thrown away.
Shelling peas were the only thing available through much of history, but have become less popular recently as more gardeners have learned how to grow snow peas.
Recommended Varieties:
How to Grow Snow Peas
Snow peas have a thin pod that is tender and completely edible, making them a great healthy snack! Depending on the variety, they are harvested at 3-6″ long.
Their high yield makes snow peas a good use of garden space. You can grow a large crop in a small space.
Extra snow peas can be frozen for stir fry.
Recommended Varieties:
How to Grow Snap Peas
Like snow peas, snap peas have a tender edible pod. The pod is thicker, however, more like an ordinary shelling pea in appearance.
They are also a great snack food (kids love them!), wonderful in stir fries, and highly productive!
Learning how to grow snap peas is fun and easy!
Recommended Varieties:
When learning how to grow peas, be sure to pick a type of pea your family likes and will enjoy!
How to Grow Peas
- Choose a variety of shelling, snow or snap peas
- Plant 1 1/2 deep. Peas grow best when the ground is thawed but the weather is still cool
- Add a trellis for the peas to climb
- Weed and Water
- Wait. Peas will be ready to harvest 50-75 days from planting
- Harvest snow peas and snap peas when the pods are about 2″ long. Shelling peas are ready when the pods are plump.
Step 1: Choose From Shelling, Snow or Snap peas!
Step 2: Planting Peas
Peas like cool weather, and in most areas will thrive grown in the spring or fall. In cooler short season climates they can be grown in the summer too.
I plant peas as soon as the ground thaws in the spring, about a month before the average last frost date.
Depending on the variety, your pea plants will produce for a couple of weeks to a couple of months. For a continuous harvest, plant another pea crop every month.
If you are growing peas in the summer, it’s a good idea to give them partial shade. They do well planted behind a taller crop such as corn. In hotter climates, peas might not grow at all in the summer.
Plant pea seeds 1 – 1 1/2″ deep, and about 2″ apart in loose soil. They do not need to be thinned.
Peas are also great for container gardening!
Step 3: Trellising
Peas like to climb! Your pea plants will be healthier and easier to harvest if they are grown on a trellis.
You can grow them up an existing fence, let them climb on cornstalks, or make a simple DIY trellis by pounding in two tall stakes or fence posts with twine strung between. This can be a fun DIY project when you are learning how to grow peas!
If you don’t want to trellis your peas, look for a dwarf variety that only gets 18-24″ tall.
Step 4: Watering
When growing peas, keep the soil moist, but not soggy. A deep watering every few days is better than a lighter watering every day.
You can check if your peas need water by sticking a finger in the ground next to them to see if it feels moist!
Step 5: Waiting for Harvest
Soon your pea plants will be covered in beautiful white or purple blooms! Depending on the variety, your peas will be ready for harvest 50-75 days after planting!
Step 6: Harvesting Peas
Snow and snap peas can be harvested when they are at least 2″ long. You can do a taste test to see what size you prefer. Some varieties get tough if allowed to grow too big, while others still taste delicious at 5-6″ long!
Shelling peas are ready when the pods are plump, but still dark green.
Keep picking peas every 2 days while they are producing. If you stop picking, the plants will stop making peas. When it comes to learning how to grow peas, picking is the biggest job!
When your plants stop producing and start to dry out, cut the plants off at the soil level, leaving the roots in the ground. Peas are a nitrogen fixer, meaning that the roots fix nitrogen in the soil and improve its fertility for the next crop that will grow there!
Saving Seeds from Peas
Once you’ve learned how to grow peas from your garden, you can easily save seeds from your peas to plant next year. Simply leave some of the pods on the plant and allow them to get brown and dry out. Shell the pea seeds and let them dry in an airy place before storage. You can read more about saving pea seeds here!
New to gardening? Besides the free articles on our website, we have a resources page with real, honest reviews of the best gardening books: Best Garden Books Reviews
Enjoy your harvest!
-Kait
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