The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Plantings peas for fruits and pea tendrils

Soak peas before plantingSaturday, I checked the soil temperature in the mule garden and got a reading of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so I soaked a handful of snow peas to prepare for Sunday planting.  But when I headed out with peas and thermometer the next day, the soil temperature had dropped to 33.  Oops.  I suspect my Saturday measurement was taken too late in the day to get an idea of the current soil baseline temperature, which is almost certainly still too cold for Starting peas in a pot for tendrilspeas.  Since the peas were soaked, I went ahead and put them in the ground, but I'm not holding my breath about getting a crop from this early planting.

Meanwhile, I had some leftover hydrated peas.  Most years, I give these peas to the chickens as a treat, but this year I decided to drop the seeds into a pot to sprout in a warm spot inside for pea tendrils.  Maybe a dose of pea vines will fill that winter craving I'm beginning to develop for fresh vegetables?


Need to leave home for the weekend but worried about your flock?  Our chicken waterer provides clean water for days.


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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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soaking peas
Is soaking the peas really necissary? I've grown peas in my own garden and commercially and never soaked them. Even with old seed, the germination rate was near 100% That said, I've never grown by seed I'd saved; I don't know if there is something different in the storage method that changes the need for soaking.
Comment by Edward - If You Can Read, You Can Cook — Mon Feb 21 10:45:34 2011
Soaking peas
Soaking peas jumpstarts their growth so that they don't rot in the ground when it's cold. You don't need to soak if you're planting later peas, and you don't need to soak if your peas have the pink, antifungal coating on them.
Comment by anna — Mon Feb 21 12:30:23 2011
re: soaking peas
Ah. I've always started my peas in a greenhouse, so soil temperatures aren't an issue.
Comment by Edward - If You Can Read, You Can Cook — Mon Feb 21 18:32:17 2011
Warm soil makes happy peas
If I wasn't always trying to have fresh food sooner out of the garden, or if I was willing to put peas under some sort of protection, I probably wouldn't need to soak either. Oh well. :-)
Comment by anna — Mon Feb 21 20:58:13 2011
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