When to sow peas: timing, seeding depth and predecessors

"Physically ripe" means the soil no longer smears and crumbles when worked. These Ukrainian recommendations tie the sowing to that moment, not to a month.

• Institute of Agriculture NAAS, 2023Forest-Steppe and Polissia (zone document, no oblast split)

  Sowing. Peas are sown at the optimally early date, once the seed layer reaches physical ripeness so the seed can be placed evenly at the set depth.

• Institute of Agriculture of Polissia NAAS, 2024Zhytomyr oblast (Polissia)

  Sowing. Peas are sown at the optimally early date once the seed layer is physically ripe.

• Yuriev Plant Production Institute, 2025Eastern Forest-Steppe (Kharkiv; Yuriev Institute trials)

  Peas should preferably be sown in the first hours after the soil reaches physical ripeness and in as short a window as possible.

Pea seed germinates from 1–2 °C. That is a germination minimum, not a signal to sow.

Peas are the crop of the very earliest sowing dates. A delay of 5-10 days cuts grain yield by 4-7 c/ha in the western Forest-Steppe, 4-9 in the eastern, 5-8 in the central. Sowing starts when the soil is physically ripe, straight after pre-sowing tillage.

No source gives a latest sowing date for peas, and we do not invent one.

• 4–5 cmmedium and heavy soilsInstitute of Agriculture NAAS, 2025 · PDF с. 58
• 6–8 cmlight soilsInstitute of Agriculture NAAS, 2025 · PDF с. 58
• 4–5 cmheavy soilsUniversity textbook, 2001 · PDF с. 310
• 6–7 cmmedium and light soilsUniversity textbook, 2001 · PDF с. 310
• 8–10 cmwhen the seed layer driesUniversity textbook, 2001 · PDF с. 310

Peas keep their seed leaves below ground, so when the seed layer dries the seed can go deeper. The sources differ by a centimetre or two; we show each instead of averaging.

Peas return to the same field after at least 3 years of other crops (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution № 164).

The resolution is in force, but the article of law it rested on (Art. 33-1 of the Law on Land Protection) was removed in 2015, and the fine for farming without a rotation project (Art. 55 part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offences) in 2021. A farm has no duty and no fine here: it is a state agronomic reference.

The same rule holds: sow as soon as the soil crumbles, at the depth for your soil. ADAM advises on field crops; for garden varieties ask your seed shop.