Final pea harvest

I harvested the last of the peas today. We had about 12' planted (~ 60 plants) and harvested about 5 quarts of peas over two weeks. The first batch was planted from seed March 14 and the second batch March 27. The first batch was planted outside on March 27 two weeks after soaking. The first flowers appeared on May 26 and the first harvest of about a cup of peas on June 8. The entire harvest window for two succession plantings two weeks apart was June 8 to Jun 21 (13 days).

That was 96 days from seed to the end of harvest for half of the first batch which grew in a container in full sun (pulled out to make room for tomato plants on Saturday, June 18 and turning yellow), 100 days for the other half that was part of the final harvest and grew in significant shade in the middle of the day. The second batch came in at 87 days, still green but obviously at the end of production and also in full sun.

We enjoyed the peas very much. They were so sweet we liked to call them "candy balls". I will be starting a new batch for the fall very soon. If I get them started this weekend, 100 days will land October 3 which is after our average first frost date, but still leaves a month of potential growing for a cold-tolerant crop like peas, so I will want to start more seeds several weeks apart. It always surprises me when I remember that by the end of August, the sun will be setting by 7:40pm, significantly reducing the amount of sun that growing crops will receive.