Best pea shoot varieties to grow and sell in the UK
Ah, pea shoots. Those beautiful sweet little plant shoots that are probably the most well known of all the microgreens by both chefs and the public. This makes pea shoots an excellent ‘gateway’ crop to grow and sell at your microgreens farm. The familiarity will entice your customers then you can upsell all your other microgreens varieties that they may never have heard of or tried before.
The thing with peas though is that there are so many different varieties in the world (which is great for pea lovers!), but can also get very confusing for those growing just for the shoots in the UK.
In todays blog post, I want to clear that up for you.
You can grow pea shoots from any type of pea seed. The two in today’s post’s photo however tend to be the most common in microgreens production.
I call them Tendrils and Leafy. Tendrils are a smaller variety with thin and wispy ‘tendrils’ on them (in traditional pea growing, the plant uses these tendrils to help them climb upwards for light and to keep them sturdy). Leafy varieties are larger than tendrils, have more leaves and much fewer tendrils. If you’ve heard of Speckled Pea, a variety commonly used in pea shoot production in North America, these are the leafier type I’m talking about here.
How to source these in the UK:
Grow Sow Greener do an excellent trendril pea seed - Organic Green Pea Tendrils. These are the ones I use in my own microgreens farm.
If you’d like the leafier variety, I recommend going with Grown Local or CN Seeds (4019 variety)
I only grow the tendril variety now at my farm. I grew both for a while., but I decided on the tendrils because:
Chef's prefer them (I did a survey with my own chef customers!)
Being smaller, they mix much better in my salad mixes (95% of my current product sales)
Possible downsides of growing tendrils include:
They can get very tendrilly and can mat together if left growing too long! Interestingly, if you grow them in natural sunlight, their tendrils grow much straighter. It's the prolonged intense light under LEDS that causes the wiggling. Just cut them before they get too tangled.
They yield lower than the leafy variety so you won’t get as much weight from each tray as you will with the leafier varieties. Pea shoots are usually sold by their weight.
Downsides to growing the leafy variety:
The 4019 variety from CN Seeds is a particularly vigorous growing one and gets quite bulky at the top, meaning it doesn't fit as easily on tight shelving and can shade out crops around them. Again cut before they get too big.
If left a fraction too long, they get tough and stringy to eat.
In conclusion, if they’re grown well they both taste great! I recommend you try growing both and see what you and your customers prefer.
Pea shoot growing, in a nut shell:
PREFERRED SEEDS - Organic Green Pea Tendrils from Grow Sow Greener
SOAKING - Soak over night
SEEDING PER COMMERCIAL UK MICROGREEN TRAY - 260g
GERMINATION - Stack and weight
SOW TO CUT TIME - 13 days (cut at bout 10cm tall. Timings might differ depending on the temperature of your grow room)
EXPECTED HARVEST PER TRAY - 400g - 500g
QUANTITIES TO SELL IN - 80g punnets
SUGGESTED PRICE - £2.50 - £3.50/punnet (depending on location)
If you’d like a full step-by-step pea shoot growing guide, with suggested pricing, profitability and some nice photos, they’re one of the featured crops in my free Mini Business Guide to microgreens farming in the UK.
If you’d like to dip your toe in and quickly get started, then have a good read through my free 14-page, content packed Mini UK Microgreens Business Guide.
You’ll get:
5 great reasons for starting a microgreens business in the UK right now
A basic equipment list
A step-by-step guide to growing and harvesting radish shoots and pea shoots, including UK pricing suggestions and profit margins.
A how-to guide to selling your microgreens to chefs, restaurants and your local community.
Enjoy your growing!