This page may later include affiliate links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure.

Pea shoots vs radish microgreens

Radish is a light sowing of a spicy green. Pea is a heavy sowing of a milder shoot.

By Ryan Moalemi. Updated November 9, 2026.

Radish microgreens are a spicy, smaller-seeded crop sown at 42 grams per 10 by 20 inch tray in the Utah State University Extension table. Pea shoots are a milder, large-seeded crop sown at 150 grams on that same tray, after a presoak. Both are common first crops. They are not substitutes for each other in the scale, the jar, or the sandwich. This comparison uses extension figures for seed weight, soak, days, and the flavor words those publications already use. It is not a taste test run for this site.

Side by side

The day counts do not line up perfectly, and they should not be forced to. Utah State separates the crops by a few days and by a longer cover for pea. Mississippi State puts both in a 7 to 10 day group. Illinois flags pea as slower to germinate even though the eating stage can still arrive quickly once it is up. Plan a radish tray as a fast brassica and a pea tray as a soaked, weighted, heavier sowing that may need a little more patience at the start. Check the tray instead of the calendar alone. Harvest, in Utah State's words for microgreens generally, can begin when the first true leaves show, or sooner if you prefer that stage.

Seed, soak, and the scale

Forty-two grams of radish against 150 grams of pea is the whole cost and storage story. On a half-size 10 by 10 inch tray the calculator's area rule cuts both in half: about 21 grams of radish and about 75 grams of pea. You can see the method in the density guide. Mississippi State's volume example for radish on a 10 by 20 inch tray is about 2 to 3 tablespoons. It does not give a matching tablespoon line for pea in the passage that states the radish amount. Weigh pea. A spoon of dry pea is a poor guess next to a spoon of radish, because the seeds are not the same size.

Soak pea, not radish, if you follow Utah State. Six hours is that table's pea soak. University of Maryland Extension puts pea in a broader 6 to 12 hour group that also includes sunflower, beet, and others, and does not put radish on that soak list. Francesco Di Gioia shows pea after roughly 10 hours in one photo sequence and describes an 8 to 12 hour soak for larger seed, with rinses so the seed gets oxygen. Mississippi State says gray sugar peas can germinate in waves over 5 or 6 days, and that an overnight soak evens them out. Any of those soaks is a published way to hydrate pea. None of them is a radish step in these sources.

After the soak, pea seed is swollen. The gram target was the dry weight. Drain the seed, then spread it. Di Gioia recommends a weight on pea during germination so the seeds stay against the mix. Utah State's general method uses about 2 to 5 pounds on the covering tray for the first half of the dark period, for the crops it is weighting, so roots grow downward. Radish, with a 1 to 2 day cover and no presoak in the Utah State table, does not need that same handling in the sources cited here. You still press radish onto moist mix so it does not sit dry on top. Maryland's press with a hand or a wood block is the shared step.

Flavor, texture, and how to use them

Utah State describes its radish microgreens as nutty and spicy, and its pea as sweet pea. Maryland says most microgreen flavor is in the leaves rather than the stems, and that stems still help you harvest and add crunch. Radish is in the cabbage family, which Maryland groups with kale, mustard, and arugula as crops that germinate and grow faster than beet-family greens. Pea is a legume shoot, not a brassica. The "heat" people expect from a radish slice is the trait the microgreen is grown for. Pea is the mild tray.

That is as far as the flavor claim should go. This site has not plated them. If you want heat, sow radish. If you want a thicker, milder shoot, sow pea. If you want both, sow two trays. Maryland, Iowa State, and Penn State advise against mixing species in one tray because they do not finish together. A pea seed still swelling on day 2 will not share a harvest day cleanly with a radish that germinates fast. Cut them separately and combine them in the bowl.

Culinary use in the Maryland guide is broad and applies to both: sandwiches, eggs, grain dishes, and a handful on a salad. Pea shoots are sturdy enough to stand in a warm dish for a moment. Radish microgreens are smaller and easier to wilt with heat, so they usually go on at the end. That is kitchen practice inferred from the size difference in the growing guides, not a timed cooking trial.

Light, water, and problems that hit one crop more

Both use a drained tray, soilless mix, and bottom water, as in the apartment guide. Radish is a fair bright-window crop. Pea still wants the soak and the weight. Do not leave the heavier pea mat sitting in a full reservoir. Penn State says to remove trays once the mix is wet. Iowa State warns that extra water leads to root rots and damping-off. If stems lean, use the windowsill guide.

Sunflower is the other large seed people pair with pea. It is not radish. Utah State lists sunflower at 48 grams, with a 12 hour soak, which is less weight than pea and more handling than radish. If pea seed is hard to store in a small kitchen, sunflower is the smaller bag of the two large-seed crops in that table. The cost side of a 150 gram sowing is in the cost guide: in Utah State's January 8, 2026 snapshot, pea was inexpensive per pound and still more than a dollar of seed per 1020 tray.

Which to sow this week

Sow radish if you want a spicy tray, a lighter seed purchase, and no soak. Sow pea if you want a sweet shoot and you are willing to soak, weigh a heavier ration, and set a weight on the tray for part of germination. Sow radish first if you are new to the method and the scale is unfamiliar. Forty-two grams is a smaller mistake than 150 grams if the tray molds. Move to pea when the watering habit is steady.

Neither crop is a sprout in the extension definition. You cut above the mix. You do not eat the pea seed hulls as the crop, though some hulls cling and can be rinsed off. The FDA's sprout warning, summarized in the apartment guide, is about sprouts grown and eaten whole. Wash the cut greens anyway.

FAQ

Sources

• Stephen Beck, Grow Your Own Microgreens, Utah State University Extension, updated January 2026.
• Jon Traunfeld, Growing Microgreens and Baby Greens Indoors, University of Maryland Extension, revised March 2026.
• Francesco Di Gioia, A Step-By-Step Guide for Growing Microgreens at Home, Penn State Extension, updated September 20, 2026.
• Gary R. Bachman, Growing Microgreens for the Mississippi Gardener, Mississippi State University Extension, publication 2857.
• Microgreens: year-round edible greens to grow at home, University of Illinois Extension, Kane County Master Gardeners.
• Cynthia Haynes, How to Grow Your Own Microgreens, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, reviewed March 2023.

Related guides

• Microgreens seed calculator

  Scale a published 10 by 20 inch rate to your tray and estimate seed cost.

• Microgreens seed density per tray

  Extension charts do not all use the same tray. Read the tray size before you copy a gram number.

• Can you grow microgreens on a windowsill?

  Several extensions say yes, with a bright window. A lamp is the backup when stems lean hard toward the glass.

• How to grow microgreens in a small apartment

  A tray, a soilless mix, and a bright spot are enough to start. Here is the sequence extension publications describe.