Mendel would be proud. Any SE soils wil require organic amendments.

http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/plantoftheweek/articles/English_Pea.htm

Alex, I decided to wait until January to plant for a spring crop.

I had a nice crop of snap peas last year. Does that count? I planted the seed in raised beds in mid February here. It took several weeks to come up, but it did. I harvested a good many peas until it turned hot. I will do it again this year. The vines were only about 3 feet tall. (Melting Sugar was the variety.) I grew them on my tomato cages.

English pea varieties come in dwarfs to giants, but I think the old fashioned kinds get about six feet. I have read that ALL peas should be staked no matter how "dwarf" they are supposed to get. This is probably because picking is easier. The vines will grow into a snarly mess without support.

Thanks Donna! The variety I picked up is a dwarf called Alaska. I'll be sure to give it some kind of support.

You can plant them now for a spring crop. It takes an exceptionally cold winter to freeze them after they are up..I always plant them in the fall. I'm in zone 8b.

Newtie, when do you start harvesting in the spring?

I'm going by the "cultural recommendations" chart from the LSU Ag Center. It has planting dates of 9/1 - 9/15 for a fall planting or 12/15 - 1/31 for the spring.

I planted them Jan. 27. I think they are ready to pick now. This was new to me.

I've been harvesting mine for the past two weeks.

{{gwi:664954}}

Hi,
I have some recipes for peas but they are all good for English Pea. I 've had really nice ones when I was in Turkey but I can't seem to find similar. They are big and definitely not sweet. It is hard to eat those when they are raw. I got the latin name of it from one of the Agriculture Engineer but it comes up as "Garden pea" -Pisum sativum ssp. sativum- which is too general to find anything in that family.
I will be growing peas for the first time (it will be next year since Houston is too hot to plant right now). What would you suggest for English pea? I am looking for the ones with big peas and without that sugary sweet taste.
thank you

I grew them for the first time this Spring. I used Burpeeana Early Green peas, and direct seeded them on March 3rd. I was disappointed in the yield, but SO pleased with the flavor! My plants only got about 8 - 10 inches tall, but they were beautiful. In the fall, I want about an acre of them, they were so delicious! I simply boiled them for a short time with a little salt, and they were perfect. My 10-month old grandson loved them!