VNS Yellow Pea Field Pea Seed

Scientific name

Pisum sativum

Uses

A short spring or fall green manure, alone or in mixes, that grows fast in cool weather, holds the soil and crowds out weeds. It can also be grown for small yellow dry soup peas or for pea shoots in salad mix, and the flowers draw pollinators.

Sowing

For green manure, sow in early to mid-spring or in late summer to early fall. Treat the seed with a pea-type inoculant and plant 1½–3" deep into moist soil. Drilling is best; if you broadcast, sow heavier and harrow or rake it in. Field peas are often sown with spring oats or barley for more biomass and better weed control. For fresh or dry peas, sow as early in spring as you can, in 3" bands at about 25 seeds per foot.

Seeding rate

Alone: about 5 lb. per 1,000 sq. ft. (200 lb. per acre). In a mix: about 3 lb. per 1,000 sq. ft. (120 lb. per acre).

Light

Full sun to part shade.

Soil

Free-draining, near-neutral soil of moderate fertility. The shallow roots make peas sensitive to drought.

Harvest

For dry seed, pick once pods are mature, about 20–30 days after bloom or 52–75 days after planting. Pull the vines when about half dry and pile them, under cover if you can, to finish drying; then thresh, winnow and store cool and dry.

Termination

Till it in at any stage; for the most nitrogen, wait until after flowering. Mowing first makes tall growth easier to work in, and a tarp for 2–3 weeks works on small plots. Frost kills it, so a fall sowing makes a winter-killed cover.

Seeds per lb.

About 2,100 on average.