Plant Peas in Zone 5a

Zone 5a averages 156 frost-free days, running from a last spring frost around April 30 to a first fall frost around October 3. Peas needs roughly 60 days from planting out to first harvest, so it uses about 38 percent of that window. Peas is a hardy crop, which is what decides where in the window it belongs.

Peas handles cold soil, so there is no reason to wait for the frost date. Direct sow around Mar 26, roughly 5 weeks before the Zone 5a last frost, as soon as the ground is workable. Sowing at the last frost instead costs you the coolest and best part of the season. At 60 days to harvest, a 156-day Zone 5a season has room for about 2 sowings, so stagger them rather than planting everything at once.

Yes. Sow peas by August 4 in Zone 5a. That is 60 days before the average first frost, which covers the 60 days to maturity plus about two weeks for the slower growth that comes with shortening days, minus the roughly 14 days peas keeps going once light frost arrives.

Fall peas have to be sown into the heat of late summer and germinate poorly above 80 degrees, which is why they fail more often than spring peas. Sow thickly and keep the seedbed damp.