Peas and St. Patrick's Day: Colorado Recommendations

Posted by: Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

Everyone loves peas! Even beagles.

Despite the calendar and my family’s full-throated observance of St. Patrick’s Day, I hesitate to plant peas on March 17. The reason is simple: I’ve become suspicious that the cold shoulder the soil gives those seeds slows their germination.  This delays the peas’ entrance into the world, dashing my hopes to get the season rolling.

Though they’re a cool season crop, perfect for spring and fall gardens, peas are a bit of an anomaly.  The plant likes it chilly, but the seed prefers it warm, with best germination at 50 to 75 degree soil temperatures.  True, they’ll sprout if the soil is as cool as 40-degrees, but at those temperatures, peas take their time.

Several types of peas are perfect for growing at home.  Garden, or English, peas are best for gardeners who have a lot of time on their hands and want to spend an afternoon shelling the seeds from the pods for their meal.  Several years ago I shelled what I thought was a huge bowl of the pods; at the end of an hour I had roughly three tablespoons of peas. 

Not my yield, but it's a lot of work to shell peas!
(Photo courtesy of Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup: http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/545902.html)

Cooks wanting more performance from their plants should consider planting snap or snow peas, which can be eaten pod and all.  Snow peas are harvested young, before the seeds swell, while snap peas are delicious once the peas fill the pod.  Superb in stir fry and salads, these peas are kitchen-ready for quick meals.  An outstanding variety is Amish snap pea, with sweet, smaller pods that make excellent snacks as you harvest.

Last year I tried growing Alaska peas, which are unremarkable in fresh eating, but dried make a delicious pea soup.  We enjoyed that so much this past winter that I’m doubling the size of the planting this spring; last year’s four-by-eight-foot planting box yielded exactly one pound of peas.  I’d like a little more than one soup pot’s worth.  Grow dry peas as you would dry beans: leave the pods on the vine until both pod and pea are completely dry, then shell and store the peas in a clean, tightly covered container.

Peas are a cool-season crop, so if your soil is 40-degrees or warmer you can sow them directly into your garden.  Since they prefer to germinate at warm temperatures, then grow cool, savvy gardeners sprout their peas indoors then pop them into the ground.  To give yours a head start, place them between damp paper towels in a warm place, checking them several times per day to make sure the towels are damp and to look for germination.  Peas can be fussy about transplanting, so once they’ve sprouted, plant them one-inch deep and two-inches apart as soon as possible.

 

Sugarsnap peas have edible pods and flowers
(Photo courtesy of the University of California Master Gardeners in Napa County)

Although many varieties are short enough to need no staking, others need a bit of trellising to keep those gloriously sweet pods aloft.  Chicken wire supports run up taller stakes work, as do soft pea fences made from nylon string or twine.  Other gardeners employ tomato trellises to hold up the vines, or you can get creative with a chicken wire coated pvc tunnel that opens to one side.

Planting sun-sensitive spinach and lettuce under the pea tunnel extends their season, protecting them from heat as the pea vines grow.  Because peas climb readily, they need little encouragement from the gardener to find the trellis. 

Luck O' the Irish! Shamrocks rock

Posted by: Alison O'Connor, Larimer County Extension

Don't let the last name fool you...I'm German and Swedish, but on St. Patrick's Day, everyone can be Irish! And we should take the time to celebrate our clover friend, the shamrock.

Shamrocks are a member of the Oxalis family, also known as wood sorrels. The family contains over 300 species of plants, most of which grow from bulbs, though some have tuberous roots. A distinguishing characteristic of the shamrock is how it folds up its leaves at night, “hugging” the stem. The leaves re-open at daylight. The familiar plant grown for St. Patrick’s Day is Oxalis acetosella. This plant has small, dark green, triangular leaves and usually grows no more than six inches tall. Though it’s not the official shamrock of Ireland (Trifolium dubium), it’s much easier to grow indoors.

Shamrocks (Oxalis acetosella)

Why is the shamrock associated with Irish history? The most popular reasoning is because of Saint Patrick, who is credited for bringing Christianity to Ireland. History claims that in front of his congregation, he picked a shamrock from the grass at his feet to demonstrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death and it also symbolizes the arrival of spring. Thus, the shamrock was adopted to pay homage to Saint Patrick and announce the “season of rebirth.”

A stained glass depiction of Saint Patrick
(Photo from Wickipedia.com)

Growing shamrocks indoors takes a bit of patience and practice, meaning I will never grow them. The plants like cool, moist soil and bright light, except when they are dormant. Daytime temperatures should be no more than 75 degrees, and 50 - 65 degrees at night. They do not have an extensive root system and prefer to be pot-bound. Fertilize shamrocks every two to three weeks while it’s actively growing or flowering. Oxalis plants can become leggy if there isn’t enough light, or if temperatures are too warm. If the plant begins to look “sick” and starts to lose its leaves, don’t worry—it’s going into dormancy, which happens two or three times per year. While the plant is dormant, stop watering and let the foliage die back naturally. Shamrocks “rest” for about three months, then will send up new green shoots. When the shoots emerge, move the plant back into the light and water regularly. Oxalis flowers can be white, pink, yellow, purple or red, and some varieties can reach 10 inches tall. Leaf color ranges from dark green to a deep red.

Shamrock flowers

Another oxalis you may be familiar with is the lawn weed, Oxalis stricta, also known as yellow woodsorrel. This “shamrock” has perfectly heart-shaped leaves and yellow flowers. It’s an incredibly difficult weed to control in home lawns and landscapes. It prefers low cut turf that is well-watered. To address this weed, first raise your mowing height and reduce irrigation inputs. Once the turf is healthy, oxalis will disappear. If you need herbicide assistance, select products containing triclopyr (for example: Ortho Weed-B-Gon Chickweed, Clover and Oxalis Killer). Apply according to the directions on the label.  

Yellow woodsorrel or oxalis growing in a lawn
(Photo from the University of Minnesota)

Personally, I think sticking to the "tried and true" holiday plants are much nicer than the weird ones they dye. Why do they do this?

Isn't a simple white orchid more attractive than these sickly green dyed ones?