Peas

Looking after it

Water: Peas need normal watering. Give them a good drink once they start flowering and again two weeks later, so the pods swell. Water the soil, not the leaves. Pots need watering often. Feeding: Peas need little food. They make their own nitrogen, so in the ground they need no feed. In a pot, give a high-potassium liquid feed every two weeks from the first flowers.

Harvest and keeping

Pick shelling peas when the pods are well filled. Pick mangetout and sugar snaps at about 7.5 cm long. Start at the bottom of the plant and pick every few days, or it stops making new pods. Peas lose their sweetness fast. Eat them the day you pick them, or blanch and freeze them straight away.

What can go wrong

• Pea moth. You find small caterpillars inside the pods, often only when you shell them. The moth flies in early summer, so very early and late sowings miss it. Fine insect mesh keeps it out.
• Powdery mildew. A white powder covers the leaves, mostly in dry weather in late summer. Keep the soil moist and leave room between the rows. Pull out plants that have finished.
• Mice and birds. Mice dig up the seeds and pigeons eat the young plants. Start seeds in pots under cover and protect the rows with netting.