How peas are grown
Picked pods go off fast. Peas bound for the freezer race to the plant within a few hours of harvest.
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The short version
This cool-season crop goes into the ground as soon as the soil warms to 10 °C and reaches maturity about 60 days later in many varieties. Viner machines strip the peas straight from the vines in the field. They spoil quickly once picked, so the crop is frozen, canned or dried within hours.
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Sow into cool soil
Seed goes in once the soil reaches 10 °C. Depending on location, planting can run from winter to early summer. The crop grows best at 13 to 18 °C and does poorly in summer heat.
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Let them climb together
Plants pollinate themselves and fix nitrogen through bacteria in root nodules. In dense plantings the vines hold each other up. Each pod holds 5 to 10 seeds attached by short stalks.
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Strip the vines
Specialized viner machines pull the immature peas from the vines at field scale. Snow peas and snap peas, whose tender pods are eaten whole, are still usually picked by hand.
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Rush them to processing
Pods do not keep once picked. Unless the peas are going to market fresh, they have to be frozen, canned or dried within a few hours. Field peas are the exception, left to mature and dry on the plant.
Worth repeating
- Gregor Mendel used peas in a monastery garden for his pioneering work on heredity.
- Eating fresh immature green peas was once an innovation of early modern European cuisine.
- Peas were among the first vegetables to be canned.
Where it comes from
- China and India combined86% of world output
2023 world production of green peas, 21.5 million tonnes, as quoted on Wikipedia.
Where it goes next
Peas feeds 1 line directly.
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How peas are grown." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/peas