Start Planning for Peas and Favas
by Anza Muenchow
It’s time to start looking forward to peas and fava beans. Plant them in February as they tolerate cold soil for germination. In my family, we learned to plant them on Washington’s birthday, which is February 22. Time your plantings depending on the microclimates and soil in your garden. Microclimates can make a dramatic difference, for example, cold air can be trapped lower on a slope, and it could take as long as a month for the soil temperature to increase. Peas and favas germinate in soil that is only 40-45 degrees, and then begin to thrive when day temperatures reach 50 to 60 degrees. With the dramatic increase of day length in March and April, these early crops can grow quickly.
Select a moderately sunny spot, but not one that has a baking hot sun exposure in June, which can shorten the lifespan of the plants. Aphids love that hot dryness, and they are the worst pest for these crops. Favas have strong stalks, but peas grow best on trellises that use string. The little tendrils can easily wrap around string and support the vine. As an easy time-saving tip, I like to suggest that gardeners keep their trellis in place when the pea vines are removed in July. You can transplant an elegant vining cucumber seedling at the base of the trellis in late May or June and let it grow up and produce food for the rest of the summer. Peas are legumes and have added nitrogen and improved your soil for the cucumber crop.
Now is the time to decide which pea varieties to plant. Snow peas are the very flat pods that you typically see in Asian stir fry recipes. My favorite has been Oregon Sugar Pod II because it stays tender and has a longer harvest season, not succumbing to diseases till well into July or even August. Don’t forget about eating the pea vines, too. Snip off the top three to four inches of a snow pea vine to use in salads or stir fries. Snap peas have edible fat pods that are incredibly juicy and sweet. There are many great varieties, you just have to decide how tall of a vine you want. The original Sugar Snap was too tall for my gardens and the wind would sometimes blow it down. Now I like Cascadia, which is also very disease resistant. For shelling peas, I have enjoyed Maestro because the pods grow on stems that hang outside the vines, making them easier to pick. Peas and favas tolerate crowding. If you want to thin your planting, the seedlings are delicious in salads.
For fava beans, I plant the Broad Windsor variety as they are larger beans. I cook the fresh shelled beans and then peel the skin (seed coat) off each seed before serving. Larger beans are easier to shell and peel and still very delicious. Some people prefer the smaller varieties and then eat the whole pod when they are young and tender.
Favas and peas tolerate poor soils. Do not add fresh manure to the soil where you plant, though a few inches of compost can help them get a good start. When you plant these seeds, I recommend adding legume inoculant, which contains some of the freeze-dried bacteria that colonize the roots. Add a teaspoon of water to the seed packet and shake in the inoculant. That will coat each seed with the black powdery inoculant. The inoculant is short lived once the package is opened, so use it up this year or share with friends this season.
Protect the emerging seed sprouts from bird pests with a lightweight cover like a net or floating row cover. When the green shoots appear, clever birds know there is a seed swelling with sugar energy just below the surface. Those crows can wipe out a whole row of pea seedlings in a short time.
The other pea/fava pest to avoid is the pea weevil and its larva in the soil. The adult weevil feeds at night, so you generally won’t see it, though I have used a flashlight to inspect. The best prevention is to rotate where you plant peas each year. This is very important. You won’t see the microscopic weevil larva in the soil, but they will eat the seeds before they sprout. You can identify weevil damage on leaves when they look like they have a scalloped edge. Some damage is tolerated, but the key is to maintain a three-to-four-year rotation.
The other great attribute to these legume crops is that they are self-pollinating, so you can generally save your seeds for planting next year. Allow several plants in each row to develop fully mature seeds. Let the pods stay on the dying vine till August when they look very dry and begin to harden. Then pick the pods and store in labeled paper bags in a cool, dry area. During the long winter months, shell the pods and sort out the good-looking peas and favas for planting next year. These are time-honored, sustainable practices that we can learn and teach for generations to come.