I will try and post a graph i made about a month ago. I took free weather data and graphed it to give me a very accurate growing season planting guide for where i live. It might be slightly different where you live, but probably not by much. It uses a base temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and get hotter from there. The columns are not temperature, so dont get confused, it's actually (GDD) Growing Degree Days. Which is a new concept even to me, so please don't ask me to try and explain it. It's a concept i learned from the homegrown goodness forum.

Anyway, i probably wont plant my peas until April 1st, but it's certainly warm enough to plant them now. If your interested i can come back and post a link or information so you can try and make your own custom graphs.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7058/6907306089_78a9e623a4_z.jpg[/img]

Here is a link that might be useful:

Bonnie,

I planted 8 or so on Sunday. I've never grown peas before and thought maybe it was too early, but decided what the heck!

keen, I'll check out your graft when I'm not so sleepy. Thanks for posting that!

Barb

I planted a bunch of peas in the first week of March in my raised bed. They've actually germinated and are growing slowly. I figure if we get a very cold night or snow, I'll just cover them with a floating cover and a plastic sheet. The plastic sheet is just a painter's plastic drop cloth. It's worked really well to overwinter some vegetables that I started late last fall. It was quite fun to harvest spinach when it was still freezing outside! I even had a few peas overwinter under there! Most didn't make it because the cover collapsed on the plants when we got some heavy snow. Anyway, I'm amazed by how hardy some vegetables can be!

Local folklore has it that peas should be planted on Good Friday.

In practice, I've found that planting them any time in March/April works fine, but they seem to germinate when they feel like it, temperature dependent. I end up harvesting the peas the same time, in late June.

I don't really think this guy knows as much as he thinks he does, but his blog has a few helpful tips once and awhile. He says that you get a 50% higher yield from peas if you plant late March or by April 1st then if you wait until May. Last year i planted mine on April 1st and i got a very good crop.

I cant wait to plant all the various varieties i have this year. I look forward to trying to breed my own red-podded snap pea again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Front Range Food Gardener

I certainly haven't planted any(thing). The snow may melt off the gardens tomorrow but since the soil hasn't warmed even to 40F, I figure it would be a good 3 weeks for pea seed to germinate and begin to grow.

The smooth, starchy seeds will be the first for me to put in the ground - "snow peas." Wrinkly, high-sugar varieties are supposed to be more risky at low temperatures - greater chance of rotting. I used to lose sowings of those types but have not had trouble with snow peas, yet.

I am likely to continue to use the blooming of the Oregon grape as a guide. It seems just a little later than necessary so I try to act, just as the 1st flower buds begin to break - for the 1st sowing of peas.

So, Andrew, you have decided to follow the average time for outdoor temperatures to stop just kind of "bumping along" and actually warm enuf for good growth, eh?

Steve

Here at our place we just did a walk through of the gardens.While it has been an extremely mild year here in Rollins.Pea seeds will not be a hitting the ground for a while.Learned many years ago that I would rather wait then rot seed in the ground..We only grow the mammoth snow peas which are pole variety to utilize space versus high production.
We do have spinach that has reseeded popping up in one of the warmer more protected areas of the garden.Starting a few things in the grow bags in the greenhouse as well this week..
Guess we are like you Steve, after so many years of planting in our area and having done the experimenting we are just comfy with the whens and hows,, well we do still enjoy playing with the moon planting experiments..LOL
Mary in Montana

I should mention once again my proven technique on how to get a great crop almost every time. Buy seed by the pound, it's much, much cheaper, and then when you plant the seed, put them almost touching. Once they germinate, they duke it out to see which ones grows, and you will maximize the environment.

I'm on year three from a 5 lb order of pea seed that cost about thirty bucks, and still have about half to go. I keep them in a freezer.

I planted quite a few peas between 10th to 17th of March. Have not seen any break the surface yet. Last year I started peas end of February in a coldframe. They did really well. It was a bit of a trick getting trellises in but it worked out.

If I had a coldframe to use for peas now I would be using it.

We seed save so there is no expense going out for Pea seed at all..Peas happen to one of the easiest seeds for us to teach seed saving to new gardens,,

Gardenbutt, I've never saved pea seeds before, because I have always heard that if you leave pods on there, the plant will quit producing. Do you just wait until they are almost done, and then let a few pods dry out?

I really should save seed as well - what I've been doing is to wait until they're just about finished, early July-ish, then pull out all the vines and immediately plant beans. I could easily just heap all that someplace until they dry.

I live in Montana and just planted my peas the last couple of days. Last year I planted them at this time and they did very well and I got a huge harvest. The peas that do the best for me are Amish Snaps. I have grown the Oregon Sugar Pods as well and they did alright, but not as well as the Amish Peas. I am also growing Alaska this year so we will see how those do.
One thing I do is to cover them with a floating row cover after I plant them and then tuck the edges into the soil. Once the peas germinate I loosen the row cover so they have more room to grow, but I keep it on them for the next few weeks. At this point I take the cover off and leave it next to the peas in case there is a night calling for hard frost. Otherwise I leave them alone and they do great. I garden at a community garden and saw that one of the plots had "volunteer" peas already coming up before St. Patrick's Day. They have withstood snow, 20 degree nights and who know what else and they are coming along nicely.

I have saved seed with mixed results. The first time was about 30 years ago and weevils destroyed the stored seed. About 5 years ago, I tried again with the same results. I even put the pea seed in the freezer but I think the weevils got a good start before I did that.

Not totally discouraged, I saved seed in '09 & '10 without seeing a weevil! It was necessary to leave plants alone. No pods were harvested off the plants intended for seed. I don't suppose that taking a couple off each plant would have mattered but you want the very best seed - so, those 1st bodacious pods were just admired from a distance until I could harvest them at maturity.

I should admit that it was only with the snow peas. I don't remember which varieties I was trying before. It could have been that weevils are not as attracted to snow peas.

The one time that I tried to overwinter peas as a cover crop (Austrian field peas), they came out of the winter with only about 10% survival. It would make sense to give that another try using some of the different choices. The Alaska shell peas certainly are a good one to start early in cold soil. Maybe they could handle a not-too-severe winter for me.

Steve

Ok, my peas are planted! (at least the ones for trial and/or breeding). I managed to plant these peas today:

Biskopens �rt
Carouby de Mausanne
Purple Passion
Shiraz
Bijou
Golden Sweet
Mighty Midget
Tom Thumb
Sugar Magnolia
Opal Creek
Amish Snap
Magnolia Blossom
Midnight Snow
Salmon Flowered
Mummy White
Mummy Pea (i think)
Aa92
Aa94
Umbellatum (green seeds)
Umbellatum (brown seeds)
Honey Pod
Kleinbluetige Mutante
Parsley Pea

I never thought i would ever have or want to plant more than 18 distinct varieties of peas. I used to think that all peas were the same! Most of these are field peas, but a few are supposed to be really good sweet or snap peas. Just from looking at the seeds, the ones that looked the sweetest are Opal Creek, Honey Pod, and Kleinbluetige Mutante. They had really wrinkled seeds which means lots of sugar vs. starch ratio.

I planted my sugar snaps around ten days ago. Our soil temps are very warm. The concern I have is it continues like it has it is going to get too hot for them very early this year. Everything around here is running 2-4 weeks ahead of normal this year. I started my tomato seeds 3-4 weeks early and potting up the last tray now. The plants are going bonkers and should of been potted up a week ago. I will start a few late ones tomorrow which is when I normally end up. Unless there is signs of a big change my first tomato plants will go in WOW's or I will put a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out starting next weekend. I normally don't plant anything till May 1st here. So Bonnie if your ground is ready I would plant a few. If they don't germinate you can always sow some more. Overall I had great germination rates this year. Over 90% on tomatoes. Was a little lower on the peppers but still average. Jay

All of my peas have germinated :-) Not to bad about 2 weeks for most and I did place the seed ~1 1/2 inch deep. I did presoak the seed this year as my sandy soil has already warmed up nicely.

I planted my peas, fava, and a long row of golden beets yesterday.

Off we go.......