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Pisum sativum
Mendel's green pea (Pisum sativum), is also called the garden pea or English pea. It was a good choice for experiments in genetics for several reasons. Peas can be planted early in the spring, often while the ground it still cold from the winter. They grow and fruit quickly and are among the earliest vegetables to be picked each year. The monks in Mendel's monastery would have really appreciated his crops as peas are best if eaten almost immediately. Like corn, peas lose their sweet flavor very rapidly.
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One of the distinct characteristics about peas, that Mendel used, is that peas can be classified as either smooth or wrinkled. This depends on the way their seeds look when dried. Every gardener knows that wrinkled varieties of peas are sweeter than smooth ones, and only wrinkled varieties were eaten in Mendel's monastery.
As early as possible each spring Mendel would rush into his experimental garden and plant the seeds he had collected the previous year. The
length of time he would have to wait before getting his results would vary for each variety. From the time his seeds were sown in the Monastery soil, until the plants were ready to be harvested depended on the kind on plant. Tall-growing types (one of his characteristics) are the 4- to 5-foot high and take 74 days; whereat the shorter types and two 2 1/2-foot and only take 67 days. Dwarf types (another characteristic) are about 15-inches at maturity and only take 64 days. The difference in maturation times must have given him a certain amount of trouble.
Modern growers, less interested in genetics and more interested in the results have three varieties of edible-pod peas to choose from. They are the 2- to 2 1/2-foot Dwarf Gray Sugar, (65 days); and the 41/2-foot Mammoth Melting Sugar, (74 days); and my personal favorite. the 6-foot Sugar Snap peas, 70 days.
If you want to grow Mendel's peas in your garden, the following guideline should help. Modern pea varieties grow best in soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Prepare the soil by digging down about 8 inches into the soil leaving a flat-bottomed trench about 10 inches wide and 2 inches
deep. Put a small amount of low-nitrogen fertilizer at the bottom of each trench (about 2 ounces for every 10 feet of row), and rake it
into the soil.
Note: low-nitrogen fertilizer is used because peas, like other legumes, form a partnership with soil bacteria to take nitrogen from the
air and fix it into usable fertilizer.
Place your seeds at about 2 inch intervals along the trench and then rake good soil over the top. In cool climates cover with mulch until the seeds start to germinate. Once the shoots begin to appear, protect the delicate plants and later provide them with canes or nets up which they can climb. Stand back, eat, and enjoy.
Think of Mendel.
