Cover Crop / Cool season
Field Pea Cover Crop
Cool-season cover crop for open beds before or after vegetables.
Grown as cover and biomass, not a garden pea harvest.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 60
- Germination temperature
- 40-75F
- Seed depth
- 1 inches
- Spacing
- 2 inches
- Row spacing
- 6 inches
- Start method
- Direct sow
Frost-date timing
- Direct sow
- 28 days before last frost
- Fall planting
- 8 weeks before first frost
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow into the final bed when the soil temperature, seed depth, and moisture are ready.
- How much space?
- 2 inches in-row spacing, 6 inches between rows, and 1 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use crop-family rotation first, then pair with compatible timing, spacing, and canopy size rather than relying on a simple companion chart.
- Common failure modes?
- Do not let cover crops shade new vegetable seedlings. Moderate water while establishing. Cool, well-drained soil.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Moderate water while establishing.
- Soil
- Cool, well-drained soil.
- Watch
- Do not let cover crops shade new vegetable seedlings.
- cover-crop
- legume
- cool-season
- soil-cover
Browse context
- Cover Crop Catalog Category collection
- Legume Family Rotation and family context
- Cool Season Seeds Season collection
- Direct Sow Seeds Start-method collection
- Beginner-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- Quick-Maturity Seeds Practical trait collection
- Fall-Planting Seeds Practical trait collection
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