What Does a Pea Plant Look Like? Sowing and Harvest Times, Growth Cycle, and Planting Methods

Peas are also known as green beans, wheat peas, cold peas, wheat beans, snow peas, bi beans, ma lei, and so on. The flowering period is June to July, and the fruiting period is July to September. So what do they look like? When are they sown and harvested? How long is the growth cycle? What are the planting methods? According to legume family data, the pea is an annual climbing herb, 0.5-2 m tall, green throughout, smooth and hairless, covered with a powdery bloom. The leaves have 4-6 leaflets; the stipules are larger than the leaflets, leaf-like, heart-shaped, with fine teeth on the lower edge. The leaflets are oval; the flowers are borne singly in the leaf axils or several arranged in a raceme; the calyx is bell-shaped, deeply 5-lobed, with lanceolate lobes; the corolla varies in color depending on the variety, but is mostly white and purple, with stamens (9+1) diadelphous. The ovary is hairless, the style is flattened, with bearded hairs on the inner side. The pod is swollen, long oval, with an obliquely acute apex, the dorsal side nearly straight, and a hard papery inner layer on the inner side; seeds number 2-10, round, green, wrinkled or not, turning yellow when dry.

When are peas sown and harvested?

According to the different sowing seasons for peas, areas north of the Yangtze River generally sow from March to April and harvest from July to August, forming the spring-sowing region; areas south of the Yangtze River generally sow from late September or early October to November and harvest from April to May the following year, forming the autumn-sowing region.

How long is the pea growth cycle?

The growth cycle of pea shoots is 5—8 days. For pea maturation time, early-maturing varieties take 65-75 days, mid-maturing varieties 75-100 days, and late-maturing varieties 100-185 days.

What are the pea planting methods?

1. Seed selection and sprouting: Before sowing, use 40% salt water to select seeds, removing the floating, unfilled, or pest-damaged seeds. Before sowing, sprout the seeds; when the seeds sprout, treat the seeds at a low temperature of 0-2°C for 15 days before sowing.

2. Rhizobium inoculation: Inoculating peas with rhizobia is an effective measure to increase yield. After rhizobium inoculation, root nodules increase, stems and leaves grow vigorously, more pods are set, and yield is higher. The inoculation method is to use 10-19 grams of rhizobia per mu, add a little water, mix evenly with the seeds, and then sow.

3. Timely sowing: Before field sowing, apply thoroughly decomposed barnyard manure, compost, and a certain amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer; especially applying phosphorus fertilizer has an obvious yield-increasing effect. Peas are sown in hills, with a row spacing of 10-20 cm and an in-row plant spacing of 5 cm, sowing 2-6 seeds per hole, covering with 5-6 cm of soil when the soil is moist. When the soil is dry, cover with slightly thicker soil. Use 10-15 kg of seed per mu.

Cultivation Techniques

1. Cropping system: Peas should not be continuously cropped. After continuous cropping, it can cause toxic effects on subsequent peas and aggravate the occurrence of pests and diseases, so peas usually need to be rotated with other crops. White-flowered varieties are more averse to continuous cropping than purple-flowered varieties, and their rotation period needs to be longer. Peas can also be mixed-cropped and intercropped with other crops.

2. Land selection: Drip irrigation cultivation has lower demands on soil, which is beneficial to seedling survival and crop growth, so land with deep soil layers, relatively light soil salinity and alkalinity, and medium fertility can all be planted.

3. Loosening soil and fertilizing: After sowing, shallowly loosen the soil several times to raise ground temperature, promote root growth, and make seedlings robust. For autumn-sown cultivation, carry out one hilling before overwintering to keep warm and prevent freezing; after spring begins, loosen the soil and weed in time to raise ground temperature. Before peas flower, water lightly and apply quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer to accelerate plant growth and promote branching, then loosen the soil to preserve moisture. When the stem begins to set pods, slightly increase the amount of watering and apply phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. During the peak pod-setting period, the soil should be kept constantly moist. Ensure the water needed for pod development. In the late pod-setting period, when the pea vines close the rows, reduce watering. For vining varieties, begin staking when the plants are 30 cm tall. Peas are harvested in batches, and fertilizer is applied once after each harvest.

4. Gap filling and topdressing: After emergence, check seedlings and fill gaps in time, and cultivate and weed 1-2 times. Heavily apply topdressing at the seedling stage, especially in fields where base fertilizer was not applied or was applied in small amounts; generally apply 5-7.5 kg of compound fertilizer per mu or 5 kg of urea or 1000 kg of decomposed human manure and urine. For tall-stalk varieties, after spring temperatures rise and the plants begin to elongate, insert small bamboos with tips or branched tree branches (with leaves removed) between the rows so the pea plants can climb and grow. Peas are not tolerant of waterlogging, so pay attention to clearing ditches and draining water in spring. During flowering and pod setting, more nutrients are needed; apply 7.5 kg of urea and 5 kg of ternary compound fertilizer per mu. During the seed-filling period, spray 1% urea and 0.3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate 2 times.

5. Pest and disease control: The main diseases of peas include root rot, brown spot, powdery mildew, brown streak, and so on, and the main insect pests include black leafminer, leafminer, and so on. The editor has already explained this in more detail in the article "Pea Pest and Disease Control Techniques"; please go there to read it.

6. Timely harvest: The harvest time is determined according to the method of consumption. Generally, grain peas are harvested 15-18 days after flowering when the seeds are plump, dry peas are harvested when 70%-80% of the pods are withered and yellow, vegetable peas are harvested 12-14 days after flowering when the tender pods show seeds but not distinct grains, pea shoots are harvested about 30 days after sowing when the shoots are 18 cm tall by picking the tender tips, those used as feed are harvested at full bloom, and those used as green manure are turned under promptly after harvesting the pods.