Soil Temperatures for Peas!

Hey Everyone,

I have had some very good questions in relation to the best time to plant peas.  The key to growing a good set of peas in the spring is to get them up and out of the ground quickly to prevent the seeds from rotting in soils that are both cool and wet.  It is also imperative to get them in the ground early as once daytime temperatures reach into the 80's their production completely shuts down.

Peas take 4 - 5 weeks to germinate at soil temperatures of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, about 13 days at 50 degrees, and just 7 - 10 days when the soil warms to 60 degrees.   They will actually germinate with ground temperatures anywhere from 40 F to 85 F with their optimum falling around 75 F.  We are definitely in the ground temperature range to get them planted, STAT!

Sugar Sprint Snap Pea

For spring planting look for varieties that have a little heat tolerance built in.  Lincoln and Wando are two wonderful old time shelling varieties that do very well in the spring. Plants stand about 30" tall and they bear prolifically being able to take some of the early warm temperatures without shutting down their production.  However, these two varieties do require pro-active preventative maintenance for keeping powdery mildew at bay.  For those who like the snap peas, Sugar Sprint and Super Sugar Snap are wonderful varieties with incredible flavor that have excellent disease resistance to powdery mildew built right in.  My favorite snow pea is Oregon Sugar Pod II.  I cannot say enough good things about this snow pea variety.  The production is incredible as it produces two pods per each node on healthy disease free plants.  I have grown these for years with much success and they do extremely well in our community garden setting.

Green Meadows Healthy Garden Tip:

As with most vegetables avoid working with your pea plants when they are wet and try to keep foliage as dry as possible by watering at the base of the plant.  If picking peas in the morning, it is wise to make sure all dew is off the plant first.  These simple steps go a long way in preventing disease.  Decide if you will be pro-active or re-active with your pest protection and keep an eye out for aphids.  These are usually the first pests to arrive in the spring garden and pea plants provide good cover for them.  Compost teas, Actinovate, and AzaMax are wonderful organic approaches for promoting health, preventing disease, and keeping insects at bay.

As a special note - plants in the allium family such as onions, garlic, leeks, and shallots have a tendency to stunt the growth and production of pea plants.  For this reason, it is wise to plant them at the opposite end of the bed.

For those who would like additional information on planting and growing peas a link to Burpee is below for your convenience.  Its information is very straightforward and it contains the proper method for freezing any excess that some may find useful as well.  I have also placed a link to a very nice article on the differences in productivity between different varieties of snow peas.  This is excellent information for those who like getting the most bang for their buck out of their gardens.

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/peas/all-about-peas-article10250.html - link to a straightforward article from Burpee on growing peas as well as instructions for freezing them after harvest.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/snowpeas?page=0,0 - link to a very nice article on snow peas and the differences in productivity between varieties.

Happy Gardening,

Denise, Beds 25 & 29

Signs of Spring

This winter has been quite a ride weather wise. Not like a merry-go-round, but like a roller coaster. It is a wonder we don't have whip-lash as we've gone from freezing Polar Vortex lows to sunny late spring like temperatures in a matter of days. This year, we had the 2nd Polar Vortex come to visit us at the same time there was a pollen alert out. How mixed up is that!

 

I have a love/hate relationship with red maple flowers. Love to see them because it means winter is getting closer to the end. But I hate them because I get hay fever. Because this year was so cold, I actually was watching and hoping for the flower buds to swell and pop open. (If you look at the trees right now, maples have a red haze to them which is what their flowers look like from the distance.) 

But I ONLY have a love, love, love relationship to the sights and sounds of sandhill cranes as they migrate through. Even though some years they start heading north in January, they still are a sign (to me) that spring is coming.


How do I know these are sandhill cranes, not geese? In Georgia, Canada Geese are non-migratory. The geese that you do see flying are generally low to the ground and in very small V's.  Sandhill cranes (unless they are coming down for a landing or taking off) fly very high above the tree line.



Hal Massie got a great picture of a large V plus a mass of swirling birds. The mass of cranes are "swirling" up in the sky to catch a better thermal to fly in.  (Thermal's are good because it gives migrating birds a boost, like a tail wind behind a plane.)  It is fascinating to watch them swirl up, up, up in the sky and then suddenly shoot out into a new thermal and form up into V's.

 

Another way to tell whether you are watching  cranes versus geese is to listen to their calls. They sound completely different! Here is a link to listen to the Sandhill crane call . The first sound is what you frequently here in the sky above you. If you are a sandhill aficionado, the mere hint of their call will cause you to drop what you are doing, race through the house, tripping on everything, to stand outside and scan the skies trying to see them in the air.

 

Not that I love weeds but after such a hard winter, I'm even glad to see the winter weeds popping up in the mulch layer even though I know they need to be pulled sooner than later.

There are smells to the signs of spring too - daphne and winter blooming honeysuckle are delicious if you get a hint of them.

And we mustn't forget watching, watching, watching, impatiently watching and waiting for that darned daffodil to FINALLY open. By the time this post is done it will hopefully have opened!

Vicki