We start thinking about peas around mid February, but wait for temps to get into the 50's. Looking at the 10 day forecast for Seattle that may be next week.

If you have heavy soil wait until March.

An inoculant and bone meal should help.

Save seeds from your best plants and after a few years your seed will be tailored for your conditions.

I've never been able to grow peas in cold soil. I sow in mid-April. They do fine. I like to soak the seeds for a couple of days indoors, then sow. It seems to give much higher germination percentage.

I started some seeds outdoors in early July last year, and was harvesting peas into November. The plants did extremely well.

Bone meal is a waste of money because it hurts our soil more than it helps. Why buy something like that?
I'd plant the peas when the snow has melted. Peas are subject to a pea enation virus transmitted by aphids in warmer temperatures. The earlier you can plant peas the better crops you will get.

Bone meal is a waste of money because it hurts our soil more than it helps

Why would you say that? How does it 'hurt' the soil? Bone meal is considered an excellent slow release source of phosphorus (and calcium) and is found to encourage the development of Rhizobium, the nitrogen fixing bacteria that cohabitate with legumes. This is why it is often recommended to be incorporated into soils when peas or beans are planted. In general, it just encourages good root development in a wide range of plants.

And it has also been found to immobilize heavy metals in contaminated soils and is used in part for remediation of these soils.

How is this harmful?

It's true peas are slow to germinate in cold soils. I've always sprouted them indoors first, then planted outside once the seed coat has split. Washington's birthday was always the traditional marker for planting peas in this area and for years I planted sweet peas (flowering) at that time.

"The Bottom Line
Bone meal supplies high levels of phosphorus and calcium, elements that are rarely limiting in
non-agricultural soils.
 Phosphorus, from bone meal or other sources, does not "stimulate" plant growth; it is only a
mineral, not a plant growth regulator.
 High levels of phosphorus, from bone meal or other sources, will inhibit growth of mycorrhizal
fungi.
 Without mycorrhizal partners, plants must put additional resources into root growth at the
expense of other tissues and functions.
 Before you add any supplementary nutrients to your landscape, have a complete soil test
performed first"

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/horhttp://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/horticultural%20myths_files/Myths/Bonemeal.pdfticultural%20myths_files/Myths/Bonemeal.pdf.
I tried a couple of times to paste this but it would be easier to google search Linda Chalker Scott bonemeal.

See previous post.

A radio talk show gardening host in Oregon says nows the time to freeze pea seeds in ice cube trays with water. Plant the frozen cube and all.
I was wrong in suggesting to wait until the soil was warmer.

What does the ice cube trick do? All my experience and all my research says that peas will not germinate in very cold soil. Why is he recommending this? It sounds completely outrageous. It sounds like a gullibility test for his listeners.

Boy, thsi is turning into an interesting thread!

First, for sure, can we hear more on the rationale on freezing peas in ice?

The debate about phosphorus has me intrigued, and the Puyallup article was interesting. I remembered reading in Steve Solomon's book that the NW had an excess of one of the NPK minerals, but when I looked it up, it was Potassium; he suggested adding either phosphate rock or bonemeal, too. (Is this one of those topics where even the 'experts' disagree???) Fortunately, I bought a basic soils tester a couple of days ago. I'll try it today, and can report back to on what the "bulk Cedar Grove Vegetable Garden Mix being sold on February 12th, 2009", tested for.

Finally, I followed up on the inoculant suggestion, and THAT's one item I'm absolutely going to get. Thanks for the suggestion!

For both bone meal and inoculanat, are the brands at the big box home improvement stores okay? There are no large nurseries near me.

Yes, it is a joke, although it wasn't intended as one I'm sure. It probably works great in some areas in some years. Not in North Bend, would be my bet. Doesn't work well here in Olympia either although everyone keeps repeating it anyway.

I've planted peas on Prez Day weekend, and again later in March, and both plants have started yielding peas at the same time. Now I just wait til it warms up a bit more. I get pea enation resistant peas from Territorial Seeds.

Prez Day for Peas is in the same category as Phosphorus Stimulates Root Growth - a gardening myth perpetuated as cold hard fact, but without scientific verification. Part of gardening conventional wisdom, developed from a combination of anecdotal evidence and wishful thinking.

Bone meal is a good source of slow-release phosphorus, which is what you want. But, our soils here are usually not deficient in phosphorus, and adding any source of phosphorus to a soil not deficient in it can be harmful to your plants and to the environment as a whole around you.

I started out my career as a scientist by working as a gardener. So much of what we were taught in horticulture school is unverified or just plain wrong, but it's presented as cold hard fact even though there've been no controlled, repeatable investigations. And so much of it is still being promoted by knowledgeable gardeners as factual, when it may or may not be. I've become a great fan of Ms. Chalker-Scott and her Horticultural Myths series.

The other thing to keep in mind is that gardening is, even more so than real estate, location dependent. You, in North Bend, will have to disregard much of the timing promoted on this site, which is dominated by gardeners in much more temperate lowland Seattle and Portland. Even Olympia is in a different world, let alone high-elevation North Bend! Our springs are also always at least 2 weeks behind Seattle.

Steve Solomon is working in southern Oregon I believe, and they have very different soils from what we in the Puget Sound area have. So he could be right about southern Oregon soils needing phosphorus, and just using the term PNW as a shortcut. Ms. Chalker-Scott is in Puyallup and is more likely to have more accurate information about local Puget Sound conditions. Our soils are recently glaciated and tend to be on the coarse, well-drained, nutrient-deficient side, while those of southern Oregon are not at all recently glaciated and will not have the same issues of lack of soil development. Location, location, location.

As far as the inoculant goes, I've never used them, but I don't know of any reason not to. I don't always get good yields either. When I first planted a new raised bed garden, my peas didn't do anything. The soil was very new and probably had no microbial community of its own. The next season, not wanting to drive into town to buy inoculant when I wanted to plant peas right now, I pulled up some Scotch Broom and picked the nodules off the roots and put those in the holes with my pea seeds. Scotch Broom is a leguminous nitrogen fixer too, so I figured those root nodules must be the Rhizobium nodules. The peas did much better that year. Of course it's possible that the fertility dance and blood sacrifice I did at the time was what made the difference ... you see how these gardening myths get started.

"Of course it's possible that the fertility dance and blood sacrifice I did at the time was what made the difference"

reg--I think that MUST be it!

I'm used to waiting a bit longer to plant peas, but last year--my first here--I waited too long and though I got a crop, it was very slow in coming and limited. However, it went down to 26 here last night. Would the freeze help or hinder the unsprouted peas?
By the way, I'm just going with adding some compost to last year's soil in my raised beds.

I almost never get peas in that early, but there's no reason not to. They usually just sit and wait for the right temp. Much depends on your soil type and the garden bed's exposure to sun. I would think 3/1 to 3/15 might be a good compromise for N. Bend. Try planting some later also and you may just see that they will grow faster than the early-planted peas and will catch up. It is important to plant so they mature before July though. In Seattle you need to plant before May 1st usually, even with enation-resistant types.

Fall crops are fun but dicey. If you have the room why not gamble. Oddly, the vines are not very frost-resistant

The very best crop I ever had was the winter I dug a trench in the garden and put my kitchen waste in it and covered it with soil. Planted the peas and the plants almost leaped out of the ground. I find that waiting until the soil is warmer gets them growing just as fast as those planted earlier. Last year, I planted peas in a washtub (with holes in the bottom) and kept the whole thing in my greenhouse for a few weeks. The crop was still not early.

I'm sure every one has different experiences depending on their own micro climate. Looking at my garden notebook and 34 years of pea attempts in three different Kitsap county sites clearly shows early plantings have usually rotted in the ground. Funny how in my climate we almost always get quite the heavy cold rains the last weeks of Feb. the first weeks of March. I now wait 'till April and a half way decent weather forecast. Steve Solomon was the founder of Territorial Seeds in/near Cottage Grove which is quite different from Southern Oregon. Using the Scotch Broom nodules is both fascinating and SCARY! I only grow sugar snaps now [Cascadia from Fedco Seeds this year] and that brings up which type of pea you are growing. I also no longer inoculate and it seems not to matter. As said: location, location, location and I've always envied the river bottem landers! I spend half my time building soil!

I just turned under my cover crop today, to hopefully plant peas by the end of March. We still are having a lot of frost on the ground in the mornings at this point.

Peas planted too early never rot for me. The rats, raccoons, possums, voles and crows never give them that chance. Pre-sprouting them by soaking in water overnight speeds up germination and keeps them from being eaten. I always have to wait to plant things til conditions are right for them to sprout quickly, before they got eaten. Peas, beans, taters, all get eaten before they can sprout if planted when it's too cold.

Well....I put in my first row of snow peas and sugar snapson Saturday. Some years I am able to get an early start and those years the absence of slug and bug damage makes it worth it.................jwww

Towhees will pull them up also. I wonder how many "rotted" plantings were actually eaten.

Lots of watching eyes and hungry mouths out there.

If You Plant It They Will Come. You are not gardening in isolation, crops may have to be protected.

I planted really early last year and it was nearly a total bust, but I'd say that was because I have so much trouble finding varieties that I like which are also resistant to every disease. The later crop did do a lot better, even if disease got them, too.

All I want is Novella or Novella II and no one seems to offer them anymore. Afilia peas are probably good here because there are less leaves for the disease organisms to attack, I'm guessing.

Still Kris, I just googled Novella pea, and there are lots of companies selling it.

Thanks so much. In the past two years I was unable to find the seed.

I googled it, too, just now and the only sources were NZ and CA which will not ship (or cannot) to the USA.

Please, give me a name or two of sources you found in the States.

Thanks.

I found Novella II peas listed at Reimer Seeds in NC - but they are currently sold out. They offer a "tell me when they're available" feature".
http://www.reimerseeds.com/novella-ii-sweet-peas.aspx

Here...try this one - Irish Eyes Garden Seeds in Eastern Washington:
http://www.gardencityseeds.net/product_info.php?products_id=731

Patrick

Good googling there! Thank you so much, Patrick.

FYI, while my extension office warned me not to expect very accurate readings, the results from two testings with the standard garden store NPK test were:

Nitrogen - very low
Phosphorus - very low
Potassium - off-the-chart high

Has anyone tried using the $4 home soil test lately?

I'm in the foothills by North Bend, WA and I'll be following up with sending a sample to Mass.

CC

Cheryl, you do not need to go quite so far afield as MA to have your soils adequately tested. WSU maintains a data base of testing labs, many of which are quite local.

The first table lists qualified labs and the extent of the testing they provide. The second table provides contact info.

HTH

BBoy....You have a good memory about my battles with phantom seed thieves. My efforts to combat Towhees pulling out seeds include: covering rows with garden debris and then covering with remay. This year the debris covering the first planting is stalks from zebra grass which are now beginning to deteriorate and break down.....trimmings from ferns worked to protect bean plantings last summer. I'm still not 100% sure it is towhees because of the weighted remay cover but the holes left last year were very neat and precise....definitely bird like. jwww

Thanks, gardengal, I'll look through that list.

Seattle Tilth had recommended two testing places to me: KCD, which does the basic acidity/NPK test for free, and Mass. which does a more comprehensive test for $9. I think they probably recommended MA because it's a lot more economical than the for-profit labs......

I've seen birds pulling them up myself.