Fresh pea and mangetout are the same species as this site's dried pea -- Pisum sativum -- just picked young rather than left to fully dry. That's the whole story behind the huge calorie gap between the two pages: dried pea concentrates the seed, fresh pea is mostly water at the stage it's picked. Sown successionally like radish or spring onion, its role here is fresh variety through the growing season, not a calorie strategy.
Water need
Even moisture while flowering and podding keeps the harvest steady and the pods sweet rather than starchy.
Calories at a glance
840 kcal/kg -- well below dried pea's roughly 3,390 kcal/kg (scale is log-based across all 55 crops in the calculator).
Temperature Range by Month
Month on the bottom, temperature up the side. The pale green background is what the plant can survive at all -- fatal above or below it, labelled directly on the chart where that applies to your zone. The coral band is its ideal range, and only fades in during the months this zone would actually have the crop in the ground -- reusing the exact same sowing/harvesting data as the calendar further down the page. The blue line is real monthly climate data (not a modelled estimate) for a representative rural/agricultural location in this zone -- a small farming town or agricultural research station rather than a major city, to avoid the warmer bias city weather stations have. For the actual verdict on how well this crop does in your zone, see the badge at the top of the page -- that's based on the site's own researched yield figures, not this chart.
Quick Start: Sowing to Harvest
- Sow direct, early and often. Sow direct as soon as the soil can be worked, then repeat every 3 weeks through your zone's sowing window to keep a continuous harvest coming rather than one glut.
- Choose dwarf varieties if support is a hassle. Dwarf varieties don't need support and are the simplest choice for a first attempt; taller varieties give heavier yields but need netting or a trellis.
- Keep watering even through flowering. Even moisture while the plant flowers and pods keeps the harvest steady and the pods sweet rather than starchy.
- Pick regularly and pick young. Harvest little and often -- picking regularly encourages more pods to set, and young pods are sweeter and more tender than ones left too long.
- Eat fresh, or freeze a surplus. Fresh pea doesn't store the way dried pea does -- eat it within days of picking, or blanch and freeze any surplus rather than trying to keep it fresh long-term.
Sowing & Harvesting Calendar
Pick your zone under "Temperature Range by Month" above and this updates too. Fresh pea's window is wide enough for several successive sowings within it, the same shape as radish or spring onion's calendar. Notice the Arid zone shows an autumn/winter sowing window rather than spring, avoiding the worst of summer heat during flowering.
Calories & Yield
Fresh pea is modest in calorie density at about 840 kcal per kg, well below dried pea. Subtropical and Mediterranean zones give the best yields here -- but with a crop grown successionally, total output per year from repeated sowings matters far more than any single yield figure.
| Climate Zone | Yield per plant | Calories per plant | Viability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical / Humid | 0.3 kg | 252 kcal | Viable |
| Subtropical | 0.4 kg | 336 kcal | Viable -- best yield |
| Mediterranean | 0.4 kg | 336 kcal | Viable -- best yield |
| Temperate Maritime | 0.35 kg | 294 kcal | Viable |
| Temperate Continental | 0.35 kg | 294 kcal | Viable |
| Cool / Boreal | 0.25 kg | 210 kcal | Viable |
| Arid / Semi-Arid | 0.2 kg | 168 kcal | Viable |
| Highland / Alpine | 0.25 kg | 210 kcal | Viable |
Figures per plant sown, from the site's own crop database. Fresh pea is viable in every one of this site's eight zones.
Varieties Worth Knowing
Fresh pea varieties differ in height, pod type and whether you eat the pod or just shell it. All the varieties below are open-pollinated (OP), meaning seed saved from them breeds true and is worth keeping under this site's seed-saving approach; none are F1 hybrids.
Seed Saving -- Quick Guide
Garden pea pollinates itself before the flower even opens -- different varieties, including fresh and dried types, can be grown right next to each other with essentially no crossing risk.
SERVINGS, NOT DAILY CALORIES This works out plate-sized servings of pea from your seed during its fresh harvest window only, not your group's full daily calorie needs. For that, use the main calculator.
Estimated for your selected zone above, using this site's own germination, loss and yield figures for pea -- a helping is roughly what you'd put on a plate as part of a meal with other veg. Treat it as a planning estimate, not a promise.
Storage & Preservation
Fresh pea isn't described as a storage crop in the site's own crop data at all -- it's grown to be picked young and eaten fresh, typically within days.
For genuine long-term storage, grow the dried pea instead, or blanch and freeze any fresh surplus -- fresh pea's role here is variety through the growing season, not a winter staple.
Growing Fresh Pea Without Bought Inputs
Fresh pea shares pea moth and powdery mildew risk with dried pea, though its shorter time in the ground for each sowing reduces overall exposure.
Early sowings are a genuine input-free defence against pea moth, timing flowering to miss the main egg-laying period of the moth's adult flight -- later successional sowings carry more risk.
Like other legumes, fresh pea fixes some of its own nitrogen, a modest soil benefit worth factoring into a wider rotation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is fresh pea so much lower in calories than dried pea?
Because it's picked young and mostly water at that stage -- dried pea is the same species left to fully mature and dry on the plant, which concentrates the seed's calories dramatically. Fresh pea's value is in variety and fresh eating through the season, not calorie density.
Does fresh pea cross-pollinate with dried pea?
Technically yes -- both are Pisum sativum, the same species. In practice the risk is low, since pea's flowers fertilise themselves before they even open. In this case it rarely matters at all, since fresh pea is almost always picked and eaten long before it would ever flower for seed.
How cold and hot can fresh pea survive?
Genuinely cold-hardy, the same as dried pea -- roughly -12°C to 30°C. Given its short time in the ground, extremes matter less here than for slower crops, since a poorly timed sowing is simply resown a few weeks later.
What's the difference between shelling pea and mangetout?
Shelling types are grown for the peas inside, podded out before eating; mangetout (and the similar sugar snap) are bred with thinner, sweeter pods meant to be eaten whole. Both are the same species and grown the same way -- the difference is purely which part of the pod you're eating.
Is fresh pea a good calorie crop for self-sufficiency?
Modest -- around 840 kcal per kg, well below dried pea's roughly 3,390 kcal per kg. Its real value is succession cropping and fresh variety through the growing season, the same role radish, turnip and spring onion play elsewhere on this site.