When to Plant Peas

Spring: as soon as the ground can be worked

Peas are one of the first crops into the garden. Sow them once the soil is no longer soggy and has reached at least 40°F. For most gardeners that lands roughly 4-6 weeks before the last frost. The dates for your zone above show that window.

Soil temperature controls how fast they come up. UC Cooperative Extension’s germination table shows peas taking about 36 days to emerge at 41°F, 13.5 days at 50°F, 9.4 days at 59°F and 7.5 days at 68°F. Utah State expects seedlings in 7-10 days in 55-65°F soil. Cold, wet or compacted soil also encourages root rot and damping off, so wait until the ground is workable rather than muddy.

If your spring soil stays cold, give the seed a head start instead of planting earlier. Maryland Extension suggests sprouting seed on a damp paper towel in a perforated plastic bag and planting it once roots appear, or raising seedlings in 2- to 3-inch pots. Utah State also recommends sprouting seed indoors for very early plantings.

The deadline is heat, not frost

Late planting causes more pea failures than early planting. Pea flowers are very sensitive to temperatures above about 80°F, and in dry weather the plants shed them. Pods that do form get stringy. Fusarium wilt also gets going once soil passes about 70°F, so a crop that matures in the cool weeks of spring escapes it.

Peas take about 60-70 days to mature (Utah State), so a sowing has to go in early enough to flower before your area’s first hot spell. Utah State’s own cutoff is April 1 in the state’s warm areas and May 1 in its cooler ones.

To stretch the harvest, Utah State suggests sowing shelling peas every 14-21 days until that cutoff. Snap peas bear for longer, so one planting is usually enough.

Fall: possible, but plan for less

A fall crop has to germinate in warm soil and then mature in shortening, cooling days. Using Virginia Cooperative Extension’s fall-garden method (days to maturity plus about two weeks for slower fall growth), that means sowing roughly 10-12 weeks before your average first frost. Peas are frost-hardy, so no extra frost margin is needed. Choose an early variety.

Germination is the hard part. Purdue Extension warns that pea seed germinates poorly in soil at 85°F and above, and suggests shading the row, covering seed with a light mulch, and planting a little deeper than in spring (Purdue lists 2 inches). Purdue gives August 5 as the last feasible pea sowing in northern Indiana and August 15 in southern Indiana. Utah State replants garden peas around mid-August in northern Utah and mid-September in warm southern Utah.

Even done well, fall peas are a gamble in many areas. Utah State says fall yields are much lower than spring yields, and Maryland Extension says fall peas often fail there because of warm soil, hot weather and frost arriving before the pods fill. Powdery mildew is also worse on fall plantings.

Warm-winter areas: plant in fall and winter

Where frost is rare, peas grow through the cool months and must finish before spring heat. UF/IFAS lists January through March for North Florida and November through February for Central and South Florida. The University of Arizona’s Maricopa County calendar runs from mid-September through February. Days to maturity there depend on when you sow: 60-120 days for September plantings and 120-150 days for November plantings. Summer sowings fail in both regions.