Description
Key Facts
- One of the oldest crops and ideal for kapucijners.
- Blue pea seeds are easy to grow.
- Takes about 3 months to grow
- Available from Amazon
What are blue pea seeds ?
(also known as blauwschokker or kapucijners)
- Tasty, Healthy & Fun to Grow !
- One of the oldest domesticated crops
- With spectacular coloured pods.
If you want to grow something different in your garden or allotment then blue pea seeds (blauwschokker or kapucijners) are very satisfying to grow from seed – with spectacular coloured pods.
They are one of the oldest domesticated crops and often called the dun (grey-brown) pea, Kapucijner pea, or Austrian winter pea. (although the easiest is to simply call them ‘cappus’ !)
How to grow Kapucijners…..
They are like a combination between a runner bean and a pea – where you will need a climbing frame, and they provide you with blue pods !
There are 3 main types of kapucijner :
- Blauwschokkers– which can climb to 2 metres high
- Desiree – which grow to 80 cm high
- Gastro – which has a green and not a blue pod
The good news is that blue pea seeds (Kapucijners or Pea Blauwschokker) are quite a ‘hardy’ crop and will grow in both ‘heavy’ soil like clay, as well as on sandy soil.
Do prepare the ground like any other soil, but it’s not important to add loads of fertiliser. (The good news is that kapucijners add nitrogen to your soil, hence they are great for rotation crops)
Either pre-sow under glass in Jan or Feb or sow them outside from March. Ideally you need to start as early as possible and the best option is to sow the seeds in a tray in a cold greenhouse (with plenty of sun)
Do note that mice just love the seeds – hence protection is very important !
The seeds will ‘germinate’ in 1 1/2 to 3 weeks after which you can plant them outside (which is why a cold greenhouse will provide less of a shock)
Like runner beans or peas you need to grow them up a mesh
How to prepare blue pea seeds
Once you’ve harvested the blue peas you will need to prepare them.
The first stage is to shell the blue peas.
It can take a bit of time and you might end up with purple fingers – but the effort will be worth it!
If you’ve never shelled peas before then have a look at our step by step video, as well as recipes & cooking ideas..
More information
Minze Vries –
OK, I am Dutch and love kapucijners – so very, very biased. This is fantastic to grow on your allotment – looks great and tastes fantastic. (Although the shelling can be a bit of a pain)