<p>62-63 days. The ideal choice for home gardeners who can't put up a trellis but still want succulent peas. When planted in a double row, these friendly New Age plants hold themselves erect by hugging each other! True! Pods are kept off the ground for easy harvest. Resistant to Fusarium wilt race 1 and partially resistant to powdery mildew and leaf roll virus.</p><p>CULTURE: Plant non-enation-resistant varieties before mid-March. Cold, wet soils, however, will rot the seeds so provide a cloche over this early planting. The custom of soaking pea seeds is not needed in our normally wet soils. Only enation-resistant varieties should be sown after April 1. Sow seed 2cm (1 in.) apart; 2cm (1 in.) deep; in rows at least 30cm (12 in.) apart, or broadcast on raised beds at about 500g (1 lb.) per 9.3 sq m (100 sq. ft.). Climbing varieties must be sown along a fence or trellis. Do not thin plants as peas grow much better in thick stands. 2.5--4.5kg (5--10 lbs.) of bonemeal per 30m (100 ft.) of furrow or 9.3 sq m (100 sq ft.) of raised bed may greatly improve growth. Peas follow the root crops. <br>DISEASE: Pea enation is a common Coastal virus disease, spread by the green peach aphid, that attacks and kills most varieties of peas in the warm weather of early summer. It causes an end to flowering; the developing pods become warty and misshapen, and eventually the vine dies. Standard home garden varieties are not enation-resistant. <br>HARVEST: Most dwarf varieties are bred to mature all their peas almost simultaneously for a once-over picking, best for canning or freezing. To get extended harvest with dwarf varieties, make multiple sowings and/or grow several varieties.<br>SEEDSPEC: Minimum germination standard: 75%. Days to emergence: 6-14. Optimum soil temperature range for germination: 10-25 C (50-77 F). Days to maturity: From date of direct seeding. Seed size varies according to variety, average 1800/lb. Usual seed life: 2 years.</p><p>Peas have been grown in southern Europe and the East for thousands of years. They are eaten fresh when young or as dried beans made into soups and stews when ripe. Edible pod peas (sugar/snow/snap) were recorded by Gerard in 1597. Peas are related to beans, groundnuts and clovers, also chick peas and lentils. They were probably first cultivated in Turkey. <br>Pea seeds have been found in deposits from Meolithic settlements in Jerico, dating from around 5700 BC. Other early evidence comes from Swiss lake dwellings, Hungarian caves and in the ruins of early Troy, where one large jar contained more than 440lbs of peas. This makes the cultivated pea as ancient a crop as wheat and barley. Pea cultivation then spread eastward to India and China. Peas were probably grown in England by the Romans, if not earlier, but they seem to have died out during the Dark Ages. They are said to have been reintroduced from France during the reign of Henry VIII. Peas were some of the first plants to be used for genetic experiments, and were used by Thomas Andrew Knight (1759-1838) and Gregor Mendel to improve observe genetic variations. Modern breeding is to improve varieties good for freezing and mechanical harvesting (so they must all mature at the same time), and disease resistance.</p>
