WikiWorks: Redirecting to Pea

2009-06-23T18:27:37Z

Redirecting to Pea

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2009-06-23T18:01:15Z

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| image = Upload.png 
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| regnum = Plantae 
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{{Inc|

Pea. As known to horticulturists, the pea is the seeds and plant of
Pisum sativum and its many forms, one of the Leguminosae;, grown for
its edible seeds and sometimes for the edible pods. (Figs.
2777-2783.)

The garden pea is native to Europe, but has been cultivated from
before the Christian era for the rich seeds. The field or stock pea
differs little from the garden pea except in its violet rather than
white flowers and its small gray seeds. There are many varieties and
several well-marked races of garden peas. Whilst peas are grown
mostly for their seeds, there is a race in which the thick soft green
pods, with the inclosed seeds, are eaten. The common or shelling peas
may be separated into two classes on the character of the seed
itself,—those with smooth seeds and those with wrinkled seeds. The
latter are the richer, but they are more likely to decay in wet cold
ground, and therefore are not so well adapted to very early planting.

Peas may also be classified as climbing, half-dwarf or showing a
tendency to climb and doing best when support is provided, and dwarf
or those not requiring support. Again, the varieties may be
classified as to season,— early, second-early, and late. Vilmorin's
classification (Les Plantes Potagères) is as follows:
Left to themselves, the varieties of peas soon lose their
characteristics through variation. They are much influenced by soil
and other local conditions. Therefore, many of the varieties are only
minor strains of some leading type, and are not distinct enough to be
recognized by printed descriptions.

Garden or green peas.

Peas are one of the earliest garden vegetables to reach edible
maturity. The date at which a mess of green peas could be gathered
used to be regarded as an indication of a man's horticultural
ability. In modern times, green peas grown far away to the South come
to northern markets while the ground is still frozen and are eagerly
purchased only to result in disappointment and a longing for the
old-time quality. Such disappointment is inevitable, for even with
refrigerator cars, express trains, and modern skilful handling, green
peas grown hundreds of miles away cannot come to our tables for many
hours, often not for days, after they have been gathered, and with an
inevitable loss of the freshness, which is essential for satisfactory
quality.

Peas do well in cool moist weather and will germinate and make a slow
but healthy and vigorous growth in lower temperatures than most
garden vegetables. The young plants will even endure some frost with
little injury, but the blossoms and young pods will be injured or
killed by a frost which did not seem materially to check the growth
of the plant. For this reason it is generally most satisfactory to
delay planting until there is little probability of a frost after the
plants come into bloom.

The cultural requirements are simple, but a thorough preparation of
the soil before planting is desirable, and the use of green and fresh
manure should be avoided. The best depth of planting varies with the
season and character of the soil, and early plantings on clay land
should be covered only 1 to 2 inches deep, while later plantings on
sandy land do best in drills 6 or 8 inches deep to be gradually
filled as the seedlings grow. Generally anything more than surface
tillage will do a growing pea crop more harm than good; but any crust
formed after rains, particularly while the plants are young, should
be promptly broken up.

Of the better garden sorts, from fifty to one hundred good seeds arc
in an ounce, and a half-pint should plant 50 to 80 feet of row and
furnish a sufficiency of pods for a small family for the week or ten
days in which they would be in prime condition. For a continued
supply one must depend upon repeated plantings.

Most of the best garden varieties can be well grown without
trellising, but the sorts growing over 2 feet high will do better if
supported. Nothing better for this purpose is known than brush from
the woods, but this is not always available and a good substitute is
the wire pea trellis offered by most dealers in horticultural
supplies, or a home-made one made by strings stretched 2 to 4 inches
apart on alternate sides of supporting stakes. The ingenuity of the
home-gardener will devise good forms of trellising.

It is evident that green peas occupy too much ground to be a
practical crop for a city lot or small town garden, and generally the
town dweller can be most satisfactorily supplied from a nearby
market-garden; and the great superiority of freshly gathered
local-grown peas over those which have to be shipped in make this one
of the best of crops for a gardener with permanent customers. The
best cultural methods for field plantings do not differ materially
from those given for the garden. No planting is so likely to give a
satisfactory yield both as to quantity and quality as on an old
clover sod on a well-drained clay loam, which should be well plowed
in the fall or early winter and the surface worked into a good tilth
as early as practicable in the spring.

Planting can be best done with a seed-drill so arranged that the rows
are 12 to 36 inches apart, according to the variety, with occasional
rows left blank for convenience in gathering.

Picking should be done after sundown or in early morning before nine
o'clock and care be taken not to bulk the pods, as they are liable to
heat and spoil.

Peas for canning.

There is no modern industry in which there has been greater
improvement within the past ten or more years, both as to methods and
the quality of the product, than in the canning of vegetables. This
is especially noticeable in canned peas. First there has been a great
betterment as to the varietal quality of the stock used. For canning,
particularly when modern methods of harvesting and processing are
used, it is important not only that the green peas be sweet and
palatable, but that the largest possible proportion of the pods shall
be in prime edible condition at the same time, and canners are
influenced by these qualities in selecting varieties for their
plantings, and in the cultural methods followed. The development of
each planting is closely watched by an expert, who directs that it be
cut and delivered at the factory on the day when he judges it will be
in the best condition, the time for individual crops being sometimes
modified by the capacity of the farmer to deliver and the factory to
handle it. Not infrequently certain crops are left to ripen and be
harvested as grain because of such conditions. In hot and sunny
weather, the vines are cut either after five in the afternoon or
before nine in the morning, hauled to the factory and from the wagon
go direct to a specially constructed threshing-machine or "viner,"
which separates the peas and delivers them on a moving inclined belt,
which throws out any bits of vines or pods. They are then washed and
graded, and go to the processer. So promptly is this work done that
it is known of peas being in the cans and being cooked before the
wagon on which they were brought from the field could start for home.
Usually peas put up by a well-managed cannery come to the table in
more palatable condition than so-called fresh peas which were
gathered ten to twenty-four hours before and shipped from 10 to
several hundred miles to market.

Canners who are particular as to the labeling of their output often
separate it into different grades, determined by the variety and size
of peas and labeled somewhat as follows:

Varieties 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Small, smooth seed,
not over 16/64 18/64 20/64 Run of crop
Small, wrinkled seed,
not over 18/64 20/64 22/64 Run of crop
Large, smooth seed,,
not over 20/64 22/64 24/64 Run of crop
Large wrinkled seed,
not over 20/64 24/64 26/64 Run of crop

Varieties and seed.

Few vegetables have developed greater varietal differences affecting
their horticultural or culinary value than garden peas. As to vines,
there are sorts from 6 inches to 6 feet in height and those which
very rarely form more than a single stem, while others are so
branched that they often are wider than tall; some mature their crop
very early and all at once, others not until the vines are fully
grown or continuing through a long season; pods which are so broad
and long that the inclosed peas never fill them, others in which the
growing peas very often split the pod open; peas which are green,
yellow or white, smooth and hard; others which are wrinkled,
distorted and comparatively soft, even when fully mature. Very
conspicuous variations of little practical importance are sometimes
correlated with invisible qualities which are of great importance.

When grown for seed, peas of the garden varieties yield a
comparatively small fold of increase, seldom over 10 or 12 and often
only 2 or 3, so that it is more difficult than with most vegetables
always to secure full supplies of certain sorts, and seedsmen's
stocks are constantly changing, not only as to character but name.

The following are now very popular varieties: Extra-early
smooth-seeded—Alaska or Prolific Extra Early; early wrinkled
seeded—Thomas Laxton, Gradus, Surprise; dwarf Excelsior, either the
Notts or the Suttons; midseason—Advancer, Admiral, Senator;
late—Champion of England, Strategem.

However one should confer with the seedsmen as to the most available
stock best suited for the particular needs.

Sugar or edible-podded peas.

These are a class little known in this country, but are largely grown
in Europe. They are characterized by large more or less fleshy and
often distorted pods, which are cooked when in the same stage of
maturity and in the same way as string beans. Varieties have been
developed in which the pods are as white, tender, and wax-like as
those of the best varieties of wax- podded beans.

Field peas.

There are a number of kinds of field peas in which the vines are very
vigorous, hardy, and productive and the peas generally small, hard,
and becoming tough, dry, and unpalatable as they ripen. In one
variety of this class known as French Canner, the very young and
small peas are sweet and tender, and in this stage are put up by
French canners under the name of "petit poise." The larger-seeded
Marrowfat peas were formerly commonly used by canners, and large
quantities are still packed. If this is done while the peas are
sufficiently young and tender they make a fairly good product.

Split peas.

Large quantities of field peas, mostly of the smaller- seeded kinds,
are used for split peas, the preparation of which consists in
cleaning and grading, kiln-drying, splitting, and screening out the
hulls and chips from the full half peas. This is all done by special
machines, mostly of American invention. The annual consumption of
split peas in the United States is about 50,000 barrels, of which,
before the European war, 75 per cent came from abroad.
W. W. Tracy.

PEA. Congo P., Cajanus indicus. Everlasting P., Lathyrus lati-folius.
Glory P., Clianthus Dampieri. Hoary P., Pigeon P., Caja-nus indicus.
Scurfy P., Psoralea. Sweet P., Lathyrus odoratus.
{{SCH}}
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==Cultivation==
{{edit-cult}}

===Propagation===
{{edit-prop}}

===Pests and diseases===
{{edit-pests}}

==Species==


==Gallery==
{{photo-sources}}

<gallery>
Image:Upload.png| photo 1
Image:Upload.png| photo 2
Image:Upload.png| photo 3
</gallery>

==References==
*[[Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture]], by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963




==External links==
*{{wplink}}

{{stub}}
[[Category:Categorize]]

PEA - Revision history

WikiWorks: Redirecting to Pea

Kpdhage: New page: __NOTOC__{{Plantbox | name = ''LATINNAME'' | common_names = | growth_habi...

Kpdhage: New page: NOTOC{{Plantbox | name = ''LATINNAME'' | common_names = | growth_habi...