winter peas?

In my initial shopping spree of seeds for my first ever time trying to garden (a couple years ago now), I got some peas from a local seed producer who maintains their own landrace. The packet instructions said to plant in spring or fall, and the rest of the description seemed to imply (although didn't outright state) that I should expect a harvest later in the same season I planted them. The ones I planted in spring did indeed produce seed in early summer, and then died in the midsummer heat. Then I planted more in fall, and perhaps I planted them too late but they didn't even flower before I left for the winter. But to my surprise, a few plants were still alive when I came back in spring, and they proceeded to grow and produce seed in early summer. I thought this might be a fluke, maybe a warmer winter than usual, but then last fall I planted some of the harvested peas along with more from the original packet, and sure enough this spring they were still alive. Some of them looked like they died all the way back to the roots and re-sprouted, but all are currently well ahead of any of the peas I planted fresh this spring.

I hadn't heard of overwintering peas in any of the research I had done, so I tried a bit of internet searching to see if this is something people do on purpose. All the results seem to refer to winter peas as a "cover crop" strategy, which to me implies that they're not actually intending to harvest any peas, just keeping some roots in the ground in between planting summer crops. And it might even imply that they expect these plants to die during the winter.

I've had trouble getting nearly anything to grow through the summer without (what seems to me) an excessive amount of watering, so I'm very interested in anything I can grow over winter instead. So far, that's pretty much just rye and, apparently, peas. The combination of those two has me rather excited because it would be a reasonable combination of crops to survive off of, if it ever comes to that.

So is this a normal thing? Have I stumbled across some incredible variety of super-peas, or is this just a thing that peas do but I failed to find anyone on the internet talking about it?

They should be fine. Fall-sown peas often just sit there doing nothing over winter and then take off once the soil warms up in spring. The ones that went in late probably just didn't have enough time to establish before the cold hit. Worth leaving them and seeing what happens.

Hi Josh,
I am experimenting with winter peas and rye for harvest in spring/early summer, like you do. I try broad beans as well.
My purpose is two fold:
- Avoid having young vulnerable plants in spring when the snails are hungry.
- Have some roots in the ground/soil cover during winter.
So far I am not very succesfull, because something is nibeling on my peas and beans in winter. This is only my second year trying, I don't have a great landrace to start with, so you might do better. I really believe it is possible.
I do have succes with the following crops growing over winter: Miners lettuce, garlic, kale. The miners lettuce, I can actually eat during winter, and it sows itself at my place. I am looking for more variety, hence my experiment with the peas and beans.

Good luck Josh, let us know how it goes.

I have definitely planted peas in the early fall and then had them take off in the spring and give a crop.

1. Our winters are strongly affected by the El Nino/la Nina effect, so some years it works and some years it's useless.

2. Just having some roots in the soil over winter is worth it if the seeds are saved or cheap for our wet winters and I simply accept the outcome, but don't count on it.

3. If there's a small bed I really want protected and it's getting later into the fall, I'm not beyond starting the seeds indoors ahead of time and transplanting. Yes, that's more time intensive, but the seed starting part can be done inside under electric light and our days get shorter and shorter as the fall goes on!

4. With our winter lack of light, the plants pretty much sit there and do nothing above the soil, and things usually nibble on them. I just hope that the roots are worth it.

Nynke Muller wrote:Hi Josh,
I am experimenting with winter peas and rye for harvest in spring/early summer, like you do. I try broad beans as well.

When you say "broad beans" you mean the same thing as "fava beans," scientific name Vicia faba? I have tried sowing those in spring, and they all wilted and died by early to mid summer. Should I be sowing them in the fall instead, around the same time as the peas?

Josh Warfield wrote: When you say "broad beans" you mean the same thing as "fava beans," scientific name Vicia faba? I have tried sowing those in spring, and they all wilted and died by early to mid summer. Should I be sowing them in the fall instead, around the same time as the peas?

I think broad bean is the usual name for Vicia faba in british english, and possibly in other english varieties as well. They are able to overwinter in certain climates, but as far as I know not here in Norway. I think certain varieties of broad bean are better able to overwinter, but exactly what conditions they need I don't know. I have sown them in fall  a few times, as a green manure/cover crop. They survive a bit of frost, but never made it through a winter here. Could be too cold, too damp, too dark, or just too long a period of any of these conditions? For what it's worth, some late sown peas have survived here about as long as the broad beans - which could mean that broad beans might survive the winter where you are, since peas have. Worth a try!

Josh Warfield wrote:When you say "broad beans" you mean the same thing as "fava beans," scientific name Vicia faba? I have tried sowing those in spring, and they all wilted and died by early to mid summer. Should I be sowing them in the fall instead, around the same time as the peas?

Hi Josh,
Yes, fava beans indeed.
They can be sown when the weather is still cold, like february here in the Netherlands. Harvest in may or june. After that the plants deteriorate.
I understood that the race "aquadulce" should be particulary good for fall planting. I tried that last year, the plants did well, besides being nibled on. Last fall, I could not find aquadulce, so I tried something else. Aquadulce definitely did better for starting in the fall. I will try to get them for next fall.

My experience is not that succesfull to recommend them here on permies, but I certanly recomment including fava's and especially aquadulce in your fall planting experiments.

Good luck