How to Grow Peas from Seed (Pisum sativum)

Peas are the crop that makes a gardener out of a child: push a fat seed into the soil, watch it climb, and eat the first pods raw in the row. They are also one of the oldest vegetables we grow — dried peas turn up in Neolithic settlements, and for most of history the pea was a winter staple eaten dried, not a green vegetable eaten fresh. That history still shapes the seed packet, because the split between hardy, starchy round-seeded peas and sweet wrinkled-seeded peas decides when you can sow and what you will pick.

Pisum sativum is a hardy annual legume that likes cool weather: it germinates from about 5 °C, grows best between 10 and 18 °C and sulks above 25 °C, so it is a spring and early-summer crop rather than a midsummer one. That is why there are two pea jobs for this time of year — planning an autumn sowing under cover for the earliest pods of next year, and sowing a tray of pea shoots on the windowsill. Not to be confused with the sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, which is grown for scent and is not edible.

• Botanical name Pisum sativum — pea family (Fabaceae), hardy annual
• Sow Feb–Mar under cover (round-seeded) · Mar–Jun outdoors · Oct–Nov under a cloche for a May crop
• Germination 7–14 days at 10–20 °C; seed keeps 2–3 years
• Spacing 5–7 cm apart in a flat drill 15–20 cm wide; rows as far apart as the variety is tall

Round or wrinkled: the seed decides the sowing date

Tip a few seeds into your hand. Smooth, round seeds — Prince Albert, Eminent — are the old hardy type: starchier, untroubled by cold, wet soil, and the only peas worth sowing in October–November or February. Wrinkled seeds — Kelvedon Wonder, Karina, Vidor, Marktveroveraar — hold more sugar, which is why they taste sweeter and why they rot in cold ground; sow those from March, once the soil is 10 °C. Within both groups there are three kinds of pod. Shelling peas are grown for the peas inside; mangetout (Norli, Oregon Sugar Pod, De Grace, Record, Heraut) have flat pods eaten whole before the peas swell; sugar snaps (Delikett) have thick, fleshy pods eaten whole once plump. The Dutch catalogue adds a fourth: the purple-flowered grey peas or kapucijners — Grijze Roodbloeiende and the blue-podded Blauwschokker — eaten young or left to dry for winter.

Height matters as much as type. Dwarf varieties (Kelvedon Wonder at 60 cm, Eminent at 70 cm, Karina at 80 cm) suit small beds, containers and raised beds; tall ones (Prince Albert, Marktveroveraar and Blauwschokker at 140–150 cm) crop more heavily per metre but need proper netting and a wide gap to the next row.

Soil, position and the nitrogen you don't need to add

Peas want an open, sunny spot and soil that drains freely — on heavy clay an autumn or February sowing simply rots. Add compost the autumn before, lime very acid ground, and do not feed with nitrogen: like all legumes, peas carry rhizobia bacteria in root nodules and make their own, so a feed gives lush leaves and few pods. That fixed nitrogen is why peas come before the hungry brassicas in a crop rotation, and why you cut the plants off at ground level after harvest and leave the roots in. Our guide to preparing your soil covers the groundwork; carrots are the classic row alongside and onions the classic ones to keep away — see companion planting.

Sowing peas from seed, step by step

1. Pick the method for the season From March to June, sow direct. For the cold sowings — October–November and February — start the seed under cover in a length of plastic guttering, root trainers or cardboard tubes and plant out at 8–10 cm: slide the whole gutter of compost into a matching trench without disturbing a root. It outwits cold soil and mice alike; see starting seed indoors.
2. Draw a wide, flat drill 4–5 cm deep and 15–20 cm wide, seeds 5–7 cm apart in three staggered lines; cover, firm and water. Leave as much space to the next drill as the variety will grow tall. The technique is in our guide to direct sowing.
3. Guard the seed and the seedlings Mice dig up pea seed, especially in autumn and February when little else is on offer: lay wire mesh or netting over the drill until the shoots are through, and keep it on until the plants are 10 cm tall, because pigeons strip the seedlings next.
4. Put the supports in now, not later Peas climb with tendrils, which need something thin to wrap around — twiggy pea sticks along the drill, or netting on canes for the tall varieties. Even a 60 cm dwarf pea flops without them, and pods on the soil go straight to the slugs. See plant supports and trellising.
5. Sow again every three to four weeks until June Classic succession sowing: a first early is ready in 11–12 weeks, a maincrop in 14–16. A last sowing of a fast dwarf such as Kelvedon Wonder in late June gives an autumn picking, though it will meet mildew.
6. Water when the flowers open Until then peas need water only in a real drought. From first flower to the end of picking, a thorough soak once or twice a week at the root is the difference between full pods and half-empty ones. Mulch after watering.

Autumn sowing: peas in October and November

A round-seeded pea sown between mid-October and mid-November germinates, sits through winter as a 5–8 cm seedling and starts growing again in February, giving pods in late May — two to three weeks ahead of a spring sowing. Be honest about the odds: it only works on free-draining soil in a sheltered spot, under a cloche or in a cold frame, and mice and slugs take their share, so sow a third thicker than usual. On heavy ground, sow in guttering in an unheated greenhouse in late October instead and plant out in February. Our guide to cloches, fleece and cold frames explains what each cover buys you. Meanwhile a dense sowing of pea shoots in a seed tray indoors is ready to cut at 8–10 cm in two to three weeks, at any time of year — see microgreens and sprouts.

Mice, pea moth and mildew

Mice and pigeons are dealt with above. The pea moth is the one that spoils a harvest: it flies from June into August, lays on plants in flower, and its maggots turn up when you shell the pods. Plants that flower before June — the autumn and February sowings — or after mid-August escape it; for everything in between, fine insect mesh over the row while it is in flower is the only reliable answer, and costs nothing in pollination because peas pollinate themselves before the flower opens. Notched leaf edges are the pea and bean weevil, harmless on any plant past the seedling stage. Powdery mildew coats late sowings in dry soil — water at the root and pull mildewed plants promptly — while downy mildew and foot rot come with cold, wet springs and tired ground, so rotate on a three- to four-year cycle and do not follow peas with beans. Our guides to common garden pests and plant diseases cover the rest.

Harvesting peas — fresh, and for drying

Shelling peas are ready about three weeks after flowering, when the pods are plump and the peas inside press against each other but are still bright green; squeeze a pod rather than guess. Pick from the bottom of the plant upwards every two or three days, holding the stem with one hand, and shell and eat or freeze them the same day — sugar starts turning to starch within hours. Mangetout are picked flat, at 5–7 cm, before the peas show; sugar snaps when the pod is fat but still snaps cleanly. Unpicked pods tell the plant it has finished, so keep picking even when you have enough. For dried peas, leave the last pods on the plant until they are papery and rattle, then pull the whole plant and hang it somewhere airy — exactly the method in our guide to drying beans for winter. Dried peas from an open-pollinated variety double as next year's seed; the rules are in seed saving. When the row is finished, cut the haulm at soil level for the compost heap and leave the roots in the ground.

Common mistakes

• Sowing a wrinkled variety into cold, wet soil. It rots before it germinates. February and autumn sowings are for round-seeded peas only.
• Feeding with nitrogen. Peas make their own; a feed gives you a hedge of leaves and hardly any pods.
• No supports for "dwarf" peas. Sixty centimetres is still tall enough to collapse. Push in pea sticks at sowing time.
• Picking too late, or not at all. Old pods are starchy, and every ripe pod left on the plant slows the next ones.
• Sowing into a heatwave. Above about 25 °C flowers abort and mildew arrives; keep sowings to March–June, then October–November.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sow peas in autumn?
Yes — a hardy round-seeded variety such as Prince Albert or Eminent sown from mid-October to mid-November, on well-drained soil and under a cloche or in a cold frame, overwinters as a small seedling and crops in late May, two to three weeks before a spring sowing. Protect the seed from mice and expect some losses; on heavy soil, start the seed in guttering under cover instead.

Do peas need support?
All of them, including the dwarf varieties. Peas climb with tendrils, which need something thin to grab: twiggy sticks for anything up to 80 cm, netting between canes for the 140–150 cm varieties. Put supports in at sowing time so the tendrils find them as they grow.

Why are my peas flowering but not setting pods?
Usually heat — above about 25 °C pea flowers abort — or dry soil at flowering, the one moment the crop must not go short of water. Too much nitrogen has the same effect. Peas pollinate themselves, so a lack of bees is never the cause.

Are garden peas and sweet peas the same plant?
No. Garden peas are Pisum sativum; sweet peas are Lathyrus odoratus, grown for their scented flowers, and their seeds and pods are toxic. They are sown in the same months and climb the same way, which is where the confusion comes from — see our guide to growing sweet peas from seed.

Peas ask for a wide drill, a thin support, a net against the mice and water when they flower — and give back the sweetest vegetable on the plot. Start with a packet of pea seed from the botanical Pisum sativum range, including organic peas, and add their relatives from the legume collection: broad beans for the same autumn sowing window and French beans for the summer that follows. Our companion piece on how to dry beans covers what to do with the pods you leave on the plant this month. Browse everything you can sow in October and November, plan the spring sowings from March, and explore the full vegetable seed collection or the organic range. For more, dig into our growing guides library or the beginner's guide to growing vegetables from seed, or browse all seeds.