Peas Please

Don’t let mid-winter temperatures stop you from filling your vegie patch with healthy home grown produce. It’s the perfect time to sow and grow peas! Peas are deliciously versatile and can be used in appetising creations like risotto, soup and pasta, as well as fritters, purees and salads.

Yates^® Earlicrop Massey Dwarf Peas is a heavy cropping dwarf shelling variety that matures early with good-sized pods of sweet flavoured peas.

Being a dwarf variety, they don’t take up too much space. They don’t require a trellis to climb up, however will benefit from a low support (to 50 cm) to grow on.

Here’s your simple pea growing guide:

Peas should be sown in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day.
Sow seeds direct where they are to grow, 25 mm deep into damp soil that’s been enriched first with some Yates Dynamic Lifter^® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser.
Don’t water again for a few days as pea seeds can rot if they’re too wet.
Seedlings should pop up in around 10 days.
To encourage a great harvest, as soon as the seedlings are established start feeding each week with Yates Thrive^® Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which is boosted with extra potassium which promotes flowering and pod development.
To promote healthy plant growth and lots of pea flowers and pods, continue applying Yates Thrive^® Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser every 1 – 2 weeks and keep the soil moist.
You can start harvesting pea pods from around 11 weeks. They have the best flavour if harvested as soon as pods are plump and well filled.
Pick pods regularly to help maximise the harvest.
At the end of the harvesting season, dig spent plants into the soil to add extra organic nitrogen.

Kids gardening tip: pea seeds are large and easy for kids to handle and sow and kids love picking and shelling their very own sweet and tender peas. Peas never tasted so good!