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Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history

Flour Pea

Pisum sativum

A variety of pea

How to sow flour pea: direct

Sun requirement for flour pea: Plant in Full Sun

A pea with pink flowers and vines to 2 m with huge, tenacious tendrils that cling to netting. Eaten fresh as shellout peas or ground into flour for tempura batter. Needs a trellis about 1.5 m high. Not seen in any overseas catalogue. A Southland line.

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Flour pea facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less
Optimal temperature 10–24 °C
Absolute temperature 4–30 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall 800–1200 mm/year
Absolute rainfall 350–2500 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH 5.5–7
Absolute soil pH 4.5–8.3
FAO EcoCrop

Crop cycle

60–140 days
FAO EcoCrop

Max altitude

2700 m
FAO EcoCrop

Optimal light

very bright
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?

A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.

Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.

For flour pea, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 780 growing degree days to a first harvest.

Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your flour pea will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.

Growing flour peas

  1. Dig the bed and add compost 1 week before sowing
  2. Put up supports for the vines 1 week after sowing
  3. Water regularly at sowing every week
  4. Weed gently by hand 3 weeks after sowing every 2 weeks
  5. Tie in the shoots 4 weeks after sowing every 2 weeks
  6. Pick pods regularly at first harvest every week
  7. Pull out finished vines and dig in the roots 4 weeks after first harvest

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Ecological requirements

Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Pisum sativum L.

Family / Taxonomy Magnoliopsida
Rosidae
Fabales
Leguminosae
Killing temperature growth: 0 °C, rest: -2 °C
Life form herb
Life span annual
Habit prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect, climber/scrambler/scadent
Optimal soil depth medium (50-150 cm)
Optimal soil texture heavy, medium, light
Optimal soil fertility moderate
Optimal soil drainage well (dry spells)
Optimal soil salinity low (<4 dS/m)
Photoperiod short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours)

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