Pea Growing Guide: Planting, Care & Harvest

Pisum sativum

Growing calendar

Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Sow / plantGrowingHarvest

Guides

Common problems

Start from what you can see on the plant.

Wilting Yellow leaves Leaves dying White powder Leaf spots Fruit problems

Pests and diseases (38)

Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.

Leafminer Flies

CommonPest

Winding white tunnels run through the leaf with the larva at the head of the mine. Heavy mining turns the whole leaf white and dead, cutting photosynthesis.

Fusarium Yellows

Disease

Yellowing starts on the lower leaves, the petioles twist and the plant leans to one side. Vascular tissue browns, growth stops, and heading vegetables may die without ever forming a head.

Fusarium Wilt

Disease

Lower leaves wilt during the day and recover morning and evening, and this cycle repeats as the plant dies back. Cutting the stem reveals characteristic browning of the vascular tissue.

White patches appear scattered on the upper leaf surface at first, then the whole leaf is coated in a white powder. Leaves later yellow, brown and die back, and reduced photosynthesis cuts growth and yield.

Late Blight

Disease

Dark green water-soaked lesions appear on the leaves and expand quickly into brown dead tissue. White mold forms on the underside and at the lesion edge, and dark brown lesions spread to stems and fruit.

Brown Leaf Spot

Disease

Small light brown to gray-brown spots form on the leaves and enlarge into irregular lesions. When they merge the whole leaf dies and plant vigor drops sharply.

Sclerotinia Rot

Disease

The crown, stem or head rots in a water-soaked way and is covered in white cottony mycelium. Black sclerotia later form inside and on the surface, and the plant wilts and dies.

Rust

Disease

Small raised orange-yellow to red-brown pustules form on both leaf surfaces, then rupture and release powdery spores. Heavy infection yellows the leaves and kills them early.

Anthracnose

Disease

Light brown to dark brown round lesions with sharp margins form on leaves and fruit, slightly sunken in the center. In wet weather salmon-pink slimy spore masses ooze out on the lesions.

Damping-off

Disease

The stem pinches in at soil level, turning water-soaked to brown and thin, and the seedling topples over. Infection before emergence makes the stand uneven with missing plants.

Root Rot

Disease

Fine roots rot brown to blackish brown, growth stops and the lower leaves yellow. The plant wilts easily in the daytime and eventually dies outright.

Root-knot Nematode

Pest

The plant wilts in the daytime and does not recover with feeding or watering. Pull it up and the roots carry beaded chains of galls of varying size with few fine roots.

Gray Mold

Disease

Water-soaked brown lesions form on flowers, fruit and leaves, densely covered by a fuzzy gray mold. Fruit rots and drops, and decay continues in storage after harvest.

Leaf Spot

Disease

Small round brown to gray-white lesions appear on the lower leaves, the centers turning gray with tiny black specks. As they multiply the leaf yellows and drops early.

Downy Mildew

Disease

Pale yellow to yellow-brown angular lesions form on the upper leaf surface with a gray-purple mold in the matching spot underneath. Lesions merge, the leaves die back and the plant declines early.

Replant DisorderNecrotic MosaicChoanephora Wet RotPod Swelling DisorderFoot RotBacterial Blight of PeaBacterial Vine RotWitches' BroomAphanomyces Root RotPythium Root RotMosaic DiseaseDark Leaf SpotPlant-parasitic NematodesSeed SpotFusarium Wilt and Damping-offBacterial Wilt and Stem RotBacterial Bud BlightStem NecrosisStem RotAscochyta BlightBacterial Brown Root RotYellowsAlternaria Black Spot

Written byYasuGrowing vegetables and fruit in Chiba, Japan, and building Gadenin. Corrections are welcome. 15 years of growing.