How to Grow Pea Shoot Microgreens

Pea shoots are one of the most rewarding microgreens you can grow at home. They taste genuinely like fresh sweet peas — bright, green and slightly sweet — and they produce a high volume of delicate tendrils and leaves that look stunning on a plate. They are fast-growing, forgiving and much cheaper to grow at home than to buy. A single tray costs very little and yields enough shoots for several meals.

Choosing Your Seeds

Any variety of garden pea (Pisum sativum) works well for pea shoots. Speckled, grey or field peas are often sold specifically as pea shoot seeds at lower cost than named garden varieties. Snow peas and sugar snap varieties also work. Avoid pressure-treated seeds. Whole dried peas from the grocery store can be used in a pinch, but germination rates are variable, and they are not always untreated — buy from a seed supplier when possible.

Pre-Soaking

Soak pea seeds in cool water for 8 to 12 hours before sowing — overnight is the simplest approach. The seeds absorb a significant amount of water during this time and swell visibly. Drain and rinse well before sowing. Pre-soaking is not optional with peas; un-soaked pea seeds germinate slowly and unevenly and produce a patchy tray.

Sowing and the Blackout Phase

Fill a 10×20-inch tray with 2 to 3 cm of moist seed-starting mix or coco coir. Spread soaked seeds in a dense single layer — peas benefit from higher sowing density than small-seeded crops. Seeds can touch but should not be piled. Press gently to ensure seed-to-medium contact. Mist lightly and cover with an inverted tray, adding a little weight on top. Keep at 18 to 21°C for 3 to 4 days.

Check daily and mist if the surface feels dry. Most pea seeds will sprout within 2 days. By day 3 or 4, shoots will be pushing against the cover. Remove the cover when the majority are 3 to 5 cm tall.

Growing in Light

Move the tray to a bright window or under a grow light. Pea shoots grow tall — expect them to reach 10 to 15 cm at harvest — so ensure your light source can be raised as the canopy grows. Water from the bottom daily, allowing the medium to wick up water for 10 to 15 minutes before draining. The roots anchor quickly into the medium and the shoots will straighten and green up within 24 to 48 hours of light exposure.

Harvesting Pea Shoots

Harvest when shoots are 10 to 15 cm tall and the first pair of leaflets are fully open, typically 10 to 14 days after sowing. At this stage the flavour is at its sweetest. Cut with clean scissors just above the lowest set of leaves. Unlike many microgreens, pea shoots will often regrow after cutting — the plant sends up secondary shoots from the axils below the cut. These are smaller but still edible and extend the harvest life of the tray by a week or more.

Storing and Using Pea Shoots

Pea shoots are delicate and wilt quickly after harvest. Use them within 2 to 3 days of cutting, stored loose in a sealed container lined with a slightly damp paper towel in the refrigerator. They are wonderful as a salad base, stir-fried briefly at high heat (they cook in seconds), scattered over soup, or added to sandwiches. Their mild sweetness makes them the most universally liked microgreen for people new to eating them.