Should black-eyed peas be soaked before planting?

Most of them have hard coats, and all benefit from soaking before planting. Soak them overnight in warm water. This will expedite the germination process. Each pea variety is in its own plastic container filled half full with water, so the peas are well covered.

Plant them directly in the ground well after any chance of frost, when soil temperatures are above 60 degrees. For shorter summer areas, sow indoors at least 100 days prior to the first fall frost date; then plant out when the soil warms.

Do not plant with garlic, onions, or potatoes.

While black-eyed peas do take a relatively long time – 80 to 100 days – to produce mature, dried beans, they require very little watering, no fertilizer, and just occasional weeding. The main obstacle to growing a healthy crop of these legumes is having enough time for them to produce a harvest before the first frost.

Always add at least 2 pea seeds per hole. Even 3–4 seeds per hole is fine. Planting just one seed could leave you without any peas growing in that spot. Peas only have a 60 to 80% germinate rate, after all.

Spacing Requirements

Seeds should be planted at a depth of ½–1 inch and between 2–3 inches apart. Space rows of peas at least 18 inches apart.

Growing black-eyed peas in the garden is an easy and rewarding task, simple enough for the beginning gardener. Learning when to plant black-eyed peas is simple and straightforward. Many types and varieties of black-eyed peas plants are available to grow in your garden.

Since store-bought black-eyed peas are not grown for planting, companies will sometimes dry them in large ovens after harvesting. If the temperature is too hot, it could sterilize the seeds and they won’t sprout.

Apply a low-nitrogen fertilizer to the soil 10 days before planting seeds. A fertilizer labeled 5-10-10 is the best choice because the legumes fix nitrogen in the soil. Work the fertilizer into the soil rather than applying it only to the top. This makes the nutrients more available as the plant produces roots.

Though peas and other members of the bean family are beneficial garden crops as they add nitrogen back to the soil at the end of every growing season, planting peas in the same location every year is still not recommended.

Traditional black-eyed peas grow as small indeterminate vines that reach 36 inches in height. Newer variety determinate types are also available, which grow to approximately 20 to 24 inches tall.

Peas and green beans like cooler temperatures. They need some sun (about four to five hours per day) to produce flowers and pods, but they tend to fade out as the temperature warms. Planting them in a cool shady spot will lengthen your growing season. Bush beans are a better choice for shade than pole beans.

Growing Black-Eyed Peas

That ability to cope with minimal water is because of their taproots, which can be as much as 8 feet deep. Your plants won’t need irrigation once they’re established.

Fresh Black-Eyed Peas

Wait until the pods are 2 to 3 inches long. The beans within the pods will just begin to cause bulges in the shape of the pods, and the pods themselves will still be flexible and tender. This is usually 60 to 70 days after planting. Remove the pods from the plant by pulling them gently.

Don’t exceed three seeds per hole. If more than one germinates, snip off extras at the soil line also. This prevents disturbance of the seedling roots on the one you’ll continue growing out when thinning. Don’t add more than one large seed to a hole.

Crowded plants not only discourage growth, they encourage pests and disease. Crowded seedlings shade each other from the sun. As they get larger, it only gets worse. Crowded root vegetables, including turnips, beets, and radishes, won’t develop useable roots if they’re crowded.

Thinning Peas

Sugar snap peas should be planted 1 to 2 inches apart and then thinned out to 3 to 4 inches apart, so if you have a very successful show of seedlings, you will have to thin them out more than average.

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