Legumes are valued all over the world for their satiety and rich set of vitamins, so growing peas in the open field is very popular among summer residents. You don't need to make too much effort to get the harvest. The main thing is to follow the planting rules and provide minimal care.
Description of the vegetable
In many vegetable gardens, a bright representative of the legume family is often found - peas. This annual plant has tenacious tendrils that can easily grasp any support when it can reach it. Under favorable conditions, it reaches 2 meters in height.
The root system of peas is well developed, thin green shoots are covered with small leaves. In the spring, a month after planting in open ground, the plant blooms with beautiful white or purple flowers. Soon an ovary appears in their place and a bean fruit filled with juicy green seeds begins to ripen.
Important!
Summer residents appreciate peas not only for their delicious fruits, but also for the fact that they saturate the soil with nitrogen. The root system of the vegetable has an interesting feature. In the process of growth, valuable bacteria develop in it, which, like a sponge, absorb atmospheric nitrogen and enrich the soil with it.
Famous varieties
An inexperienced person who decides to plant peas may be confused by the variety of varieties presented in specialized stores.
Sugar varieties are suitable for planting when you plan to eat fresh fruits, stew with shutters or add peas to salads. They are surprisingly soft, sweet and very popular with children. These include Sugar Children's, Ambrosia, Sugar Oregon.
Shelling varieties are indispensable for making pea puree and soup. To make them boil better, they must be soaked in warm water for several hours. "Dakota", "Vegetable Miracle", "Bingo" give a high yield.
Brain peas are ideal for freezing and canning. The most popular among them are "Vera", "Alpha", "Adagumsky".
Today, peas, like many years ago, remain an important part of the diet of people, because they fully provide them with vegetable protein, valuable minerals and vitamins.
Seed treatment
Peas are easy to eat all summer long because they can be planted several times. Planting of varieties is carried out in the last days of April, as soon as the sun warms up and the soil leaves after the winter cold. The next time to sow peas is recommended at the end of June. Then the fruits will fully ripen in mid-August.
Before planting peas, you need to prepare the seeds. If you picked them yourself, you should select heavy peas. To do this quickly, it is recommended to soak the seeds in salt water. Empty, unusable peas will float up, while full-weight material will remain below.
When the rejected peas are collected and discarded, drain the water and dry the remaining seeds.
For rapid germination, you need to soak the seeds a day before planting. Moisten a natural cloth liberally with clean water, wrap the peas in it and place in a plastic bag.
Advice
Instead, you can dissolve 2 g of boric acid in 10 liters of water heated to 40 degrees, and put the seeds there for 5 minutes. Then take it out, spread it out on paper and dry it. This care of the seeds helps prevent weevil larvae from spoiling the seeds outdoors.
Preparing the garden
A correctly chosen planting site plays an important role in obtaining the harvest of peas. It should be borne in mind which plants grew on it in previous years.
Legumes, including peas, should preferably be planted in the garden after:
tomatoes;
cabbage;
cucumbers;
potatoes;
pumpkins.
Does not like vegetables such predecessors as beans, peanuts, lentils. It is not recommended to plant peas in one place for two years in a row.
In the fall, you need to pick up a sunny, well-ventilated area with fertile soil. It should be slightly acidic and light. In September, the garden needs to be dug up and fertilized. To make the care complete, 1 m2 enough 30 g of potassium salt and 60 g of superphosphate.
In the spring, when the snow melts, the earth needs to be loosened again and fertilized with saltpeter, adding 10 g per 1 m2.
Landing rules
Before sowing, the land in the garden must be leveled and watered. The planting scheme for peas is simple. You need to make shallow grooves at a distance of 50 cm from each other. Mix wood ash and compost in a 1: 1 ratio, sprinkle them in a thin layer along the grooves. Sprinkle the fertilizer on top with damp earth from the garden and spread the seeds at intervals of 6 cm. Sprinkle with soil and lightly tamp.
To protect crops from the invasion of birds, you can cover the top of the bed with a special net. When sprouts emerge from the ground, it must be removed. Seedlings usually appear a week after planting.
How best to care
Pea care is simple and easy for everyone. It consists in abundant watering, removing weeds and loosening the earth.
It is important to carry out the first weeding and hilling when the sprouts stretch up to 15 cm.At the same time, it is advisable to drive stakes along the rows, pull the net, ropes or wire so that the peas can weave up. When the vegetable grows correctly, clinging to the support, its fruits are better warmed up by the sun's rays, the shoots are well ventilated, and this makes the peas less sick.
In order for the plant to bloom more abundantly, it is advisable to pinch the top of the stem. Then the peas will grow several lateral branches, on which buds and an ovary will appear in the future.
Maintenance requires regular soil moisture. In dry soil, peas grow poorly and rarely bear fruit. Before flowering, it can be watered every 7 days. With the appearance of buds, watering should be done twice a week. On average 1 m2 it is supposed to spend 10 liters of water.
The next day, after each watering, it is recommended to loosen the bed and clean it of weeds.
You can feed peas during watering once every 2 weeks. Experienced summer residents are advised to fertilize the soil nitroammophos... To moisturize 1 m2 beds, take 10 liters of water and dissolve 1 tbsp. l. of this substance.
Pea weevil
Pest control
To obtain a harvest, it is important not only to know how to plant peas, but also to be able to protect them from pests.
The most common insects that attack a plant:
weevil;
pea weevil;
moth;
aphid.
Nodule weevil most often affects young pea sprouts. He devours leaves, shoots, lays many eggs. The hatched larvae settle in the root system and finally destroy the plant. To combat it, you can use hexochlorane dust 12%. Consumption rate - 1 g per 1 m2.
Pea aphids attack peas during flowering and suck nutritious juice from the stems. From this, the buds and leaves wither and crumble. You can escape from it with soapy water. Grate 300 g of laundry soap, dissolve the shavings in 10 liters of water and process the garden.
Moth and pea weevil are very harmful to the plant. Their larvae climb into the pods and spoil the peas. Dust hexochloran 12% is also suitable for the destruction of insects. It must be used, consuming 1.5-2 g per 1 m2... It is important to process it before the larvae penetrate the pods, otherwise it will not be possible to save the crop.
Pea diseases
To minimize the development of disease on peas, provide them with proper care. Many diseases arise from excessive moisture, so be sure to support the peas so that they do not lie on the ground.
The plant is often affected by rust, mosaic and powdery mildew.
From the mosaic, the leaves of the peas curl, dark spots appear on them. You can't get rid of it. It is necessary to remove the diseased plant from the garden, treat the soil with a manganese solution and not plant vegetables in this place for a year. The appearance of the disease can be prevented by thoroughly treating the soil before planting and soaking the seeds in a boric acid solution.
When the first sign of rust appears on the plant - red spots on the leaves, immediately spray with 1% Bordeaux mixture. Repeat the treatment after two weeks.
Branches and leaves affected by powdery mildew begin to turn black, the pods crack and deteriorate. The plant can be helped by fungicides, for example, "Skor" or "Topaz".
It is correct to process peas from pests and diseases in the evenings so that the poison has time to dry out overnight and does not burn a delicate plant under the influence of sunlight. After harvesting, ripe peas are removed from the pods, dried and stored in an airtight container for making vegetable puree or soup.
Peas are a surprisingly unpretentious plant. It can be planted next to any crop. Give it the care it needs and it will give you a great harvest.
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