Broadfork™

Crop guide

Peas

Peas go in early, while the soil is still cold and frost is still likely. The summer heat ends them.

Grown in Ohio, zone 6a. Your frost dates move the calendar; the signals don't. Broadfork goes by where your garden is, not its zone: frost dates for your ZIP code in the US, or the ones you type in anywhere else.

Six minutes to read. Each section stands on its own.

Three pea plants climbing a twine trellis between two wooden posts, with white flowers and green pods, one split open to show the peas, their roots and nodules in the soil below.
What you plant
Seed, sown where it will grow.
When
Early spring, among the first crops in, once the soil is at least 45 °F.
How deep
About 1 inch. The data runs from 1 to 3.
How far apart
2 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart, or 2 to 4 inches each way in a wide bed. The app plants peas 8 per square foot, 4 inches apart.
Sun and soil
Not in our rows yet.
Frost
Very hardy. It takes hard frosts.
Family
Fabaceae, the pea family, with beans and edamame.
Harvest
Snow peas at full pod length, snap peas when the pods look almost filled, shelling peas at full size. Check them every day.
Soil pH
About 6 to 7.5, with 6.5 a common target; the data goes as low as 5.8.
winterspringsummerfall sowsoil at 45 °F last frost picking heat ends itdays above 85 °F a fall crop70 to 80 days
  1. springSow once the soil reaches 45 °F, before the last frost.
  2. summerPicking stops once the days pass 85 °F.
  3. fallA fall crop takes 70 to 80 days, longer than in spring.
The pea's year. Peas go in before the last frost and finish when the heat comes, so the weather sets the end, not the month. The green bars are the picking.

Planting#

Peas are among the first crops in. They take hard frosts and grow at anything above 40 °F. Sow once the soil is at least 45 °F. Data with a last frost about April 22 sows them from March 25 to April 10.

Sow about 1 inch deep in a narrow trench, and firm the soil over the seed. The data runs from 1 inch to 3.

Set them 2 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart, or 2 to 4 inches each way in a wide bed.

Seed for an early sowing in cold soil can be bought treated with a fungicide. The packet says whether it is.

If no peas have grown in that ground for three years, coat the seed with a pea inoculant first, as a powder on moistened seed or as granules in the row. Buy the kind made for peas, keep it cold but never frozen, and plant within 24 hours. In an established garden it matters less.

In Broadfork On a pea's crop page, and beside Companions on the add form, the app gives the sowing depth and the inoculant reminder.

Put up netting or brush for them to climb before or right after you sow. Set it on the north side of the garden, so the vines don't shade the shorter crops.

A fall crop takes longer: data lists fall peas at 70 to 80 days, longer than in spring.

about 1 insoil surface, firmed2 in netting or brush,up before or rightafter you sowon the north side,so it shades nothing
In the ground. Peas go about 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart, the soil firmed over them, with netting or brush up for them to climb before or right after you sow.

The season in between#

Peas grow best between 55 and 65 °F. Above 85 °F they stop growing and make no more flowers or pods, so the heat, not the calendar, ends the crop.

In Broadfork On the Timeline, a pea planting's harvest bar ends where your garden's normal highs pass 85 °F, and ticking Plan for shade cloth moves that end later.

Don't feed them nitrogen: data says it can cut the yield of peas and beans. Use an inoculant instead, and don't side-dress.

From the beds in OhioGrow the peas early on arching trellises, then sow cucumber or butternut squash seed in the soil right beside them. As the peas wane, the new vines take over the same ground, and the peas help hide the young plants from the beetles.

Harvest#

Pick by the kind. Snow peas are ready at full pod length, while the peas inside barely show. Snap peas are ready when the pods look almost filled, and shelling peas once the peas are full size.

Taste them every day once they start. Past their best they turn starchy, less sweet and tough-skinned, and within one to three days they're no good fresh.

The shoots are a second crop: the growing tip with its top leaves, tendrils and any flowers, 2 to 6 inches long. Cut the first at 8 to 12 inches tall, before the pods, then again every 3 to 4 weeks. A planting cut for shoots can still bear pods.

Saving seed#

Leave the pods on the vine until they're brown and dry and the seeds rattle inside. That can take as long as a month past the eating harvest. Then dry them indoors before shelling: 1 to 2 weeks in some data, at least two in other.

Peas pollinate themselves, so a few plants give good seed. Keep 50 feet between varieties, and don't save from diseased plants. Kept cold and sealed, the seed lasts about 3 years; the seed-saving guide shows how to store it.

Which peas#

There are three kinds. Snow peas and snap peas are eaten pod and all; shelling peas are grown for the peas inside.

In the app's catalog, among others: Sugar Snap, Sugar Ann, Oregon Sugar Pod II, Green Arrow, Little Marvel, Wando and Tall Telephone.

What goes wrong#

Where it goes next year#

Peas share a family with beans. Keep both out of a bed for 3 to 4 years, 5 or more if you can, since blight lives on in the old vines.

Don't count on peas to feed the next crop. A legume stops fixing nitrogen at flowering and moves much of it into the seed you pick.

Garlic can follow peas picked earlier in the season.

In Broadfork The bed's rotation card counts the rest years for you and says which families are clear to go back in.

Every number on this page comes from a published extension source.

Sources for this guide: University of Minnesota Extension, Clemson Cooperative Extension, University of Illinois Extension, Colorado State University Extension, Purdue Extension, NC State Extension, Ohio State University Extension, Penn State Extension, SDSU Extension, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, University of California, University of Florida, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension, University of Maryland Extension, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, Utah State University Extension, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Washington State University Extension, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Montana State, New Mexico State, Oregon State University Extension, SARE, UMass Extension, University of Connecticut, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, University of Missouri Extension, University of New Hampshire Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, WVU Extension.

The documents behind this guide (74)

Updated 11/11/2026 · Checked against our sources 11/12/2026

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