Yes, you probably want to plant peas now. Peas will die when it gets hot. Yes, there is some risk of losing them to cold. Peas will survive a frost, yes. But probably not a hard freeze.

Here is my experience, for what it is worth:

Wando is one of the more heat-tolerant varieties, and I still lost my Wando peas last year in May. Since I planted in late January, I only got a few weeks of production. So I decided to plant earlier this year. Since the last couple of weeks were the vast majority of the yield, planting even a few weeks earlier would mean a LOT more peas.

So, in early December I sowed some Wando shelling peas and Melting Sugar snow peas. They both weathered several mild frosts perfectly - no damage.

I also sowed some Blauwschokkers (purple shelling peas) and Super Sugar Snap peas at the end of December; they were just coming up before the hard freeze this past Monday and Tuesday nights.

Thankfully I was able to cover the peas before the freezes. We got down to 18F Monday night and 21F Tuesday night. Even though they were carefully covered, the older plants took considerable damage. While they all lived, I am sure they would have died if I had not covered them. However, the newly-germinated peas didn't take any damage.

So I am happy I sowed early, but also happy that I was able to cover them. And I am hoping we don't flirt with the teens any more this winter.

I have a place in Lake county, fl. One time I planted peas in early december and they produced quite well in february/march.

I succession plant my peas to have them at different times. I had snap peas and English peas already, harvested and I just took them out yesterday after they are done for the season.
Now I have planted some more bush peas, snap peas purple and green. Any of my vegetable plantings were not covered during the cold nights and they did fine, did not loose anything. Your zone is probably colder than mine, so I would do a small planting of peas before the weather gets hot and if we get more freezes you can cover them if needed.

My bush peas this morning

Purple and green snap peas

Silvia

okay thanks everyone, and great pics too! maybe i will plant these seeds i have and just let it ride and see what happens.

Ooh - thanks for the reminder! Need to plant my Sugar Snaps ASAPâ¦.

whgille, what do you fertilize with? Your plants look robust.

Zackey, the whole bed gets organic fertilizers and the mix for the peas get slow release fertilizer 13-13-13

Silvia

I put organic fertilizer on mine, but it wasn't a very strong ratio. I will look for a higher one. Thanks!

This post was edited by zackey on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 18:32