Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
pH ideal 6.0 to 7.5Temperatura ideal 13 to 18 °CCompasso 5 to 8 cm in the row, 40 cm between rows
Sementeira
Sow direct three to five centimetres deep, in double rows to make supporting easier. Germination takes seven to fourteen days in cool soil. It is a winter and early spring crop in the south and a spring crop in northern Europe. Do not transplant. Put the support in at sowing time, because fitting it later damages the roots. This is a climbing variety and needs a support of two metres or more, put in before or at sowing, because fitting it later damages the roots. It produces for far longer than dwarf varieties and yields much more per square metre, but needs the shoots guided onto the support regularly in the first weeks.
Solo
It wants free draining, cool soil that is not acid, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.5. Waterlogged soil rots the seed. No nitrogen fertiliser. It is a good rotation opener, because it leaves nitrogen in the soil for the next crop.
Clima
It is a cool weather crop, ideal between 13 °C and 18 °C, and takes light frost. Above 25 °C the flowers drop, the plant picks up powdery mildew and the harvest ends abruptly. Sowing too late in spring is the typical mistake: the crop meets the heat exactly at flowering. This is a cool season crop and heat is its main enemy. The Portuguese coast offers close to ideal conditions and allows harvests over much of the year. Inland in Portugal and Spain, concentrate the crop in autumn, winter and early spring, because from June onwards heat and long days push it to bolt and turn bitter. In France it grows easily from spring to autumn, and in Germany the whole summer works because it is rarely too hot. In Italy follow the Iberian calendar in the centre and south, concentrating the crop in autumn and winter, and the French calendar in the north, where the Po valley summer rarely makes it bolt too early. Light shade over the middle of the day extends the harvest in any warm climate.
Fertilização
It fixes its own nitrogen through root nodule bacteria, so it should not be given nitrogen fertiliser. Add mature compost only if the soil is poor and, if needed, a little wood ash for potassium. Feeding nitrogen is the classic mistake with this crop: it produces huge plants with few pods.
Rega
Water moderately until flowering and step it up from then on, because pod fill decides the crop. Water at the base, never over the foliage, so you do not encourage powdery mildew.
Controlo de Infestantes
Hoe often and always shallowly, because the roots are short, near the surface and break easily. The best method is to prepare the bed two or three weeks in advance, let the first flush of weeds germinate, remove it and only then sow: that gives you a decisive head start. A thin layer of sieved compost between the rows greatly reduces later work.
Controlo de Pragas
Aphids gather on the soft shoots and the flowering tips and weaken the plant badly: cut off the affected tips and apply potassium soap at the end of the day. Slugs and snails devour newly emerged seedlings, which is the main cause of gaps in the row: protect with an ash barrier for the first two weeks. Birds pull up seeds and shoots and are dealt with using netting or a light fleece over the row until the plants are ten centimetres tall. Also watch for thrips and for grubs boring into the pods, and remove any damaged pods.
Doenças
Powdery mildew is practically unavoidable late in the cycle as the weather warms: it covers the leaves with white bloom and dries the plant out. Sowing early is the best prevention, and potassium bicarbonate slows it down. Downy mildew and anthracnose appear in damp weather, and root rot in cold waterlogged soil. Use a four year rotation away from other legumes.
Colheita
Pick every other day once the pods start to fill. Shelling peas are picked when the peas are visible but the pod is still bright green and supple; a dull wrinkled pod already holds mealy peas. Edible podded types are picked flat, before the peas swell. Frequent picking greatly extends production. The reference colour is green, and that is what tells you it is ready.
