#16 The Madman Puts Off the Peas Again

The madman is putting off the peas again. He says It’s still too early. The soil temperature is 44˚. There is still snow on the garden. We haven’t done a soil test. And, we have just returned from the Master Gardener Symposium with some fresh ideas.

Plant Peas on St. Patrick’s Day

 Let’s start with peas. Historically, a lot of gardeners in the Northeast have said to plant your peas on St. Patrick’s Day. That date is always March 17; it doesn’t change from year to year. The madman has done some poking around to see why peas on St. Patrick’s Day is a part of garden lore.

He has found that there is no agriculturally sound reason to plant the peas on March 17. The best reason he has found was, “my grandmother said so.” Seems everybody’s grandmother said so. In fact, we first heard of this legend while working at the Middlesex County Master Gardeners’ Model Garden under the tutelage of fellow Master Gardener Maureen Gillis. The peas in the model garden were always successful. Not so much in our garden in Farmington when we tried to plant early. So what’s the difference? Temperature. The soil temperature in Haddam warms up quicker than it does in Farmington.

Peas Like Cool Weather

Peas are considered a cool weather crop. They can germinate in a soil temperature as low as 40˚. Note the use of the word “can”. At 40˚ it takes about 36 days for peas to emerge; at 50˚, they will emerge in 13.5 days and at 59˚ they show up in 9.4 days. So, says the madman, “what’s the hurry?”

And this from a man who has always tried to push nature. In fact, back in the day when he tilled the garden, I caught him out there on Feb. 28 tilling a patch for early peas. Yep, he planted them. But not a thing came up. That was back in the days before he knew anything about soil temperature and germination. As we said, the soil temperature is now 44˚, not to mention that 50% of the garden still has snow on it. It is just plain too early.

Genus Pisum

Peas are one of the earliest cultivated crops. Experts agree that peas originated somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region, but that’s as close as they come. They were brought to America by the European colonists. And, that’s good enough for the madman.

All peas belong to the family Fabaceae in the genus Pisum. We have been growing peas since we started – not the green garden peas (Pisum sativum), too much trouble to shuck. We started with snow peas and worked our way into snap peas (P. macrocarpon). The madman is anxious to get his peas planted but he is considering some minor changes in his technique this year.

In the past, we have planted single rows of peas along a fence. Our favorite variety is the Sugar Snap. They do well with cool spring temperatures, but will burn themselves out when the temperatures hit the eighties. The madman wishes he could find a purple variety so he could see them better. We tried a purple snow pea variety with limited success.

New Ideas for Planting Peas

After sitting in on a lecture by author, blogger and grower of some of the neatest things, Matt Matttus, the madman is rethinking his pea rows. In the book Mastering the Art of Vegetable Gardening, Matt suggests that planting peas 4” apart in single rows is great for mechanized farming. In the home garden, he recommends planting a 3-6” wide band containing 15-20 seeds per foot. This will produce much higher yields. The madman has already penciled in the changes in his garden plan.

The best thing about snap peas is that you can sit in the garden and eat them. The worst thing about snap peas is that you can sit in the garden and eat them. Sometimes it is very difficult to get the harvest to the kitchen to prepare for a meal. With the new technique we are trying, we hope for a much better yield.

Cooking These Peas

Our favorite recipe for the peas is to heat up some olive oil or butter (both are delicious) and sauté the peas for 3-5 minutes. If you like garlic, sauté garlic for a couple of minutes before adding the peas. Put the sautéed peas in a serving dish, squeeze the juice of a lemon on top and sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary. If you don’t like lemon, just skip it – the madman says you can sprinkle sautéed peas with anything your little heart desires.

Early Crops

Peas are not the only crop that everyone feels should get planted early if you want to enjoy them. A number of other vegetables like cooler temperatures. The madman’s favorites among these are the brassicas. All are variants of Brassica oleracea. Again, these plant have Mediterranean origins and therefore do best in a Mediterranean climate where summers are warm (not hot) and winters are cool (not cold). For us, that means don’t try to grow in the middle of summer.

What the madman likes best is broccoli, I suspect that this is because it was also his mother’s favorite vegetable. She served it a lot and even got our kids to love it by telling them they were eating trees. By reading through some of our journals we realize how long we have tried to grow it and how little success we have had – once in a while they were great, but not very often. More frequently than not they didn’t produce well. And, if they did, we were plagued by little green caterpillars. These worms made the broccoli rather unappetizing, especially when discovered by accident on the way to the mouth.

Imported Cabbage Moth

The green worms are the larvae of the Imported Cabbage Moth (Pieris rapae (L.). The Cabbage Moth is the small white butterfly that flies around gardens beginning in early spring. It lays single yellow eggs on the underside of brassica leaves. That should not be a problem, right? Each adult female can lay 300-400 of these single yellow eggs! Big problem. Eggs quickly hatch. The cycle from egg to adult takes 21-61 days, depending on temperature. Here in Connecticut, we can get three generations per growing season.

Our best ever crop was when we stumbled by accident on broccoli transplants at a garden center in August. This should have told a sane person that broccoli is a fall crop, but the madman keeps on trying. Some of our gardening friends have had success with floating row covers or even mesh enclosures. They haven’t worked for us. Some gardeners hand pick the insects or spray crops with an insecticide or BT. Master Gardener Chantal Foster has been known to chase the butterflies down with nets she has strategically spaced around her garden. The madman thinks all if this is simply too much work. This year we will start the seeds in July, we’ll keep you posted. For specific control methods check out the University of Connecticut Integrated Pest Management site.

Other Brassicas

Among the other brassicas are cabbage, Brussel sprouts, kale and, more recently to us, Asian greens. Again, green caterpillars have deterred the madman from cabbage and Brussel sprouts. He fights the worms for the kale-a crop he is starting in the greenhouse. He will also direct sow seeds throughout the growing season. Asian greens are new to our garden, and we have not come close to mastering the perfect crops we would like. Most of the seed companies have great on-line growing guides-check out your favorite company for their opinions.

Root Crops

Lots of gardeners consider root crops early season crops. The madman feels the key to success here is understanding germination and its relationship to soil temperature. For example, if your soil temperature is 41˚, carrot seeds will germinate in 50 days. On the other hand, if the soil temperature is 59˚ those carrots will sprout in 10 days. A lot can happen in your soil in 40 days. The older planting guides have always urged gardeners to plant root crops as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. New research suggests that we all might be better served with judicious use of patience. Investing in a soil thermometer and waiting for an increase in soil temperature of 10 to 15˚ might prevent a crop failure. A copy of the above chart is available from the University of California Master Gardener Program.

Our definition of root crops is carrots, beets and radishes. Neither of our mothers liked or served turnips or parsnips, so those are foreign foods to us, although our sons are trying to provide some introductions. Yes, we can plant our root crops early, but we are going to wait with both eyes on the long-term weather forecast.

Onions

Onions are not technically root crops. We grow our onions from plants shipped from Dixondale Farms in Texas. We don’t bother with onion sets and only recently have begun growing our own onions from seed. The madman planted his onion seeds in late January. The great thing about onions is that the seeds can be planted heavily because the roots don’t mind being pulled apart when setting into the garden. And we plant them in the garden by the end of April (2-3 weeks before last frost date).

Herbs and Flowers

I have visited the madman’s seed starting area to make sure that he hasn’t forgotten certain herbs and flowers I want started early. The parsley is there – remember that this takes a long time to germinate, lore says it has to travel to the devil and back 9 times before it sprouts.  Maybe that’s why I let him handle that seed. He says soaking these seeds in hot water eliminates a couple of trips. Most of my other herbs readily self-sow, or I direct sow after May 15.

The Nicotiana, Datura and Lobelia are in the flats on the heating mats. He needs to add my Sweet Pea, Butterfly Weed and Castor Beans in the near future. Unfortunately for him, my floral desires are rather fickle and I don’t give him a lot of lead time when asking for seed planting help. Nevertheless, he always comes through.

Time to recheck our catalogs and reread our journals in case we missed anything. That is always best done with hot cocoa.