For Healthy Peas In Hot Weather, Just Add Water!

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Since I wanted to give my peas the best possible chance, though, I went a step further and re-applied goat manure to the soon-to-be-planted area. And I really spread it on and rototilled it in: four wheelbarrow-loads into a 10' X 12' patch . . . the equivalent of 20 tons per acre, which is plenty.

A month later—February 12, on a glorious, short-sleeve, late winter, desert afternoon—I planted my peas (Little Marvel, Blue Bantam, Progress No. 9, and Wando varieties, all from Burpee). It seemed a bit early to sow seed—temperatures were still dipping into the teens at night—but I'd always heard you should "get your peas started early" . . . so I took the plunge.

I sowed the seeds three inches apart and allowed a two-foot spacing between rows. In addition, I placed a three-foot-high wall of twigs along each row so the vines would have support later on. (I'll never space my rows that closely again. Trying to squeeze between them to pick peas did terrible things to my aching back . . . not to mention my claustrophobia. From now on, it's three-foot spacing for me!)

Next, I irrigated . . . and waited a week . . . irrigated again . . . and waited again . . . and—after a couple of weeks—I started to get antsy. Why weren't those peas up yet? What could possibly be wrong? After the third week, I was about ready to replant the patch . . when the first seedlings (the Blue Bantam's) appeared. There'd been nothing wrong after all: The cold soil had merely slowed the plants' germination.

At this point, everything was fine . . . except that those little sprigs proceeded to just sit there—unchanged—week after week until I began to get impatient again. "Well," I sighed, "at least they're up now. They're probably just putting all their energies into root production now so they can really crank out the top growth when the weather turns warm." (Little did I realize how right I was!)

The vines grew slowly as spring advanced. They probably would've grown faster, except that the mercury often dipped below freezing at night. (Those April afternoons might be a balmy 70°, but as long as it freezes at night the vines can't grow very rapidly.) I was amazed, however, at how frost-resistant the young plants were. I can say with certainty that they withstood temperatures as low as 20° F . . . perhaps even lower early in the season.

Then, when May came (and with it, 40° nights) that whole section of the garden suddenly skyrocketed like Jack's beanstalk! All I did during that period was water the pea patch religiously every week, flooding the plot with a good two inches of water each time. Soon, the area was dense with brawny vines that looked like they could take anything man or nature could give them: heat, drought, insects, you name it. (Of course, I watched carefully for insects—especially the dreaded pea aphid—but the vines were growing so rapidly, bugs didn't have a chance!)

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