Beans & peas
Sugar snap / snow peas
Direct late March, trellised, harvest June.
- Outside
- Direct late Mar, cold soil is fine
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground, on a trellis
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 5 to 7 days in spring; steady once flowering
- Harvest
- Jun, three weeks of picking
Care
- Water
- A deep soak every 5 to 7 days in the cool spring if the rain misses, into the soil rather than over the vines to keep disease down. Keep it steady once the flowers show, the window that sets the pods; let the finger test set the pace, since a bed holds moisture well between soaks.
- Sow
- Direct sow in late March once the soil is workable, not wet enough to smear; the seed takes cold down to 40F. Set them an inch or two apart and an inch deep, with the trellis up the same day. No thinning, and an overnight soak hurries the sprout.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting is more than peas need, since they fix their own nitrogen; no feed beyond it. If the soil is poor, a light compost side-dress at flowering is plenty. Cut the spent vines at the base and leave the roots to feed what follows.
- Ready
- Snap peas at bite size, crisp and sweet to eat whole; snow peas young and still flat at 2 to 3 inches; shelling peas plump and round. Pick every day or two through the short June window.
- Trouble
- White powder on the vines: powdery mildew as June heats up, which an on-time March sowing outruns; treat with neem, but not above 90F. Birds pulling new sprouts: a strip of row cover for the first two weeks settles it. Yellowing from the ground up: root rot, so drain the bed and rotate 3 years.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Every 2 to 3 days in a warm spell, more as June heats up; a bag dries far faster than a bed. About 30 to 40 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Sow
- Sow a dozen around the rim of a 5 to 7 gal bag with a trellis or cage set in it.
Peas open the outdoor sowing season, going into cold March ground weeks before anything else dares. The entire crop lands in June, three weeks of picking, and then heat closes the door.
Growing
Direct sow in late March, or whenever the soil crumbles instead of smearing, an inch apart along a trellis set the same day; tall snaps reach six feet. No fertilizer, since peas make their own nitrogen. The June window is short and absolute, because the first real heat wave finishes the vines regardless of anyone's plans. Pull them by early July and hand the trellis space to a fall crop.
Varieties
Sugar Snap remains the tall original and the flavor standard; Cascadia keeps snap quality on a four-foot vine; Oregon Sugar Pod II covers the snow pea side.
Pests
Powdery mildew coats the vines as June heats up; an on-time March sowing outruns most of it, and Cascadia and Oregon Sugar Pod II carry resistance for the rest. Birds sometimes yank new sprouts, so a strip of row cover for the first two weeks ends that argument early.
In the kitchen
Snaps mostly get eaten at the trellis, standing up. Any that reach the kitchen want thirty seconds in a hot pan and nothing else.