Grow Your Own Sugar Snap Peas

Sugar snap peas are a great way to spread a little hap-pea-ness in the garden. They're members of the legume, or Fabaceae, family, which means they benefit the overall health of your garden, and they're super easy to grow. Let's learn a little bit about sugar snaps and find out how to grow them in your space.

What Are Sugar Snap Peas?

To properly introduce you to sugar snaps, let me first tell you a little about the two peas that combined to create them.

First, there are traditional garden peas. These are sweet little peas that grow inside tough outer shells that must be discarded before eating. The garden peas known as English peas are typically what you find inside of canned peas at the store.

Then, there are snow peas. These are very small peas that come packaged in an almost-flat pod. That's because they're typically harvested before the peas have fully developed in the pod. Snow peas are so named because they can withstand frost and snow, and unlike garden peas, the entire pod is edible. Mange tout, French for "eat all" peas do not need to be shelled since their seeds are still tender and sweet and since their fibers grow in only one direction.

In 1979, Dr. Calvin Lamborn decided he wanted the sweetness of the garden pea but the mange tout quality of the snow pea. He crossed the two, and—Ta da!—the sugar snap pea was born.

Over the years, Dr. Lamborn developed all kinds of varieties of sugar snaps, including two that are stringless, but the original is still the most popular. I'd like to thank him for his contribution to gardening because sugar snaps are some of my favorite veggies ever.

Sugar snaps are more rounded and juicier than snow peas (pictured below), and you don't have to worry about shelling them to enjoy them. Sugar snaps are tender yet crisp just like snow peas, but they have a sweet flavor profile thanks to that cross with the garden pea. In fact, sugar snaps are often considered the most flavorful variety of pea.

3 Reasons to Grow Your Own Sugar Snap Peas

It's hard to buy fresh peas

There are few things more delicious from the garden than that first bite into a sugar snap pea fresh from the vine. But did you know that only 5 percent of peas grown in the entire United States are sold fresh? That's because peas don't store well for very long, so the easiest way to get them to the customer is frozen or canned. Why buy peas that have been trucked all the way from Washington, Montana, or North Dakota (our three largest producers), when you can have your own right in your backyard for very little work?

Fresh peas are expensive

When I can find fresh peas at the store, I've noticed they've become increasingly pricey—and that's just for the pod. When you grow your own, you can enjoy the entire plant, pea shoots and all. By the way, you know those bags of Harvest Snaps at the grocery store? They're one of my favorite healthy-ish snacks, but they actually aren't made from snap peas at all. They're ground-up garden peas baked into a pea shape. The more ya know.

Peas rank high on the "Dirty Dozen"

Both imported and domestic sugar snap peas rank on the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen", the list of foods most likely to contain serious pesticide residue on them. If you do buy peas from the store, prioritize buying organic, or skip the produce aisle and head to your local farmers' market instead. There are a lot of great growers out there who are following sustainable practices for peas.

2 Types of Sugar Snap Peas Plants

Like beans, sugar snap peas can be grown as a bush or a vine. Thanks to commercialized farming, many things that were traditionally grown as a vine were developed to grow more bush-like in order for farmers to have smaller plants that are easier to maintain and harvest from all at once.

The bush varieties of sugar snaps are Sugar Daddy peas and Sugar Anns, which grow only 2 feet tall. These types obviously do not need a trellis and will give you lots of peas all at once before finishing up their life cycle.

I prefer growing vining peas because I love the look of them climbing up a trellis and because I also find I get more production from them over a longer period of time. Personally, I think the vining type tastes better too. Vining peas can grow at least 6 feet tall.

When to Plant Sugar Snap Peas

Unlike their cousins, beans, sugar snap peas grow in the cool season. They love when temps are between 45 and 65 degrees, but you can actually go ahead and plant your peas out in the garden before the threat of frost has passed. Back in Chicago, I put my peas in the ground in March, even though I still had two months of anticipated frost.

If you live in a colder climate, the best time to grow sugar snaps would be during your early spring and fall. If you live in a more temperate climate, you can grow them throughout the late fall and winter months (October through March). When the weather starts warming up, pea plants will experience some stress and their leaves will turn brown. Replace your pea plants with beans for a non-stop legume-growing party!

How to Plant Sugar Snap Peas Seeds

Make sure to plant you sugar snap peas in an area of the garden where they'll get full sun. They need lots of light to form flowers and then pods, though they do appreciate some afternoon shade in hotter climates.

I have a really thorough guide on how to sow sugar snap seeds in the garden. Read the guide here or watch the video below.

About 1 to 2 weeks after your first seeds have germinated, consider planting more pea seeds for a continuous harvest period. You can continue sowing more pea seeds even when you're adding warm-season plants like tomatoes to the garden (the peas will climb up your trellis and finish while the tomatoes get ready to do their thing).

How to Grow Sugar Snap Peas

Follow these weekly tending tips to get the most peas for your space in your kitchen garden. 

Side-Dress Your Pea Plants with Compost

Avoid adding nitrogen-heavy fertilizers because too much nitrogen will encourage your pea plants to grow more leaves, not peas. All you need to do to keep your pea plants healthy is add some organic compost around their roots regularly to encourage them to flower and then fruit. 

Water

Give your growing pea plants a good soak at the root level each week.

Pinch Off Pea Vines

Encourage each vine to split into two vines by pinching off the vine at any juncture. More vines equal more flowers and more fruit.

Keep the Peas Attached to the Trellis

Climbing pea varieties can reach 6 to 8 feet and require the support of a trellis. Sugar snap peas have little tendrils that latch onto support structures, but if those tendrils can't find their next rung to cling to, the plant will halt its growth. Only those vines that feel securely attached will keep growing and preparing to producing peas.

You can help your plant out by ensuring each and every vine feels nice and secure by tying your sugar snap peas to the trellis about once a week. Let's look at how to do that.

How to Support Peas When Growing on a Trellis

Grab some twine (I like jute because it's gentle and won't tear fragile sugar snap pea tendrils; you can also use something really thin like fishing line or wire) and a pair of scissors. Here's how to support your growing peas once your peas are about 2 to 3 inches tall.

Our goal is for the pea tendrils to find something to grab onto sooner than they would if left to grow on their own. Use the twine to extend the trellis by stringing the twine along the bottom of the trellis, about half an inch below the top of the tallest pea shoot, and tying it on both ends, keeping good tension on the string.

Continue tying rows of twine up the trellis about every 2 to 3 inches to support your peas. This way, the pea shoots can grab onto both the trellis and the twine.

Once you've supported the peas through their first 12 inches of growth, they'll be able to take it from there.

The Best Trellis for Growing Peas

I recommend metal panel, obelisk, or arch garden trellises for their strength, beauty, and durability, but you can also use cattle panel or DIY wood trellises for your peas. Before I bought my metal arch trellises, I used to make my own trellis for growing peas with sticks and twine (pictured below). This is a good temporary option, but keep in mind that your vines will quickly run out of room and might even cause a less sturdy structure to collapse.

How Long Does It Take for Peas to Grow?

After developing lots of vines and leaves, your sugar snap pea plants will eventually produce flowers. It's from these flowers that each little pod will form. A pea pod takes about 5 to 7 days to mature from the base of the flower once the petals have dropped. You'll probably start having pods ready to harvest about 50 to 60 days after sowing pea seeds.

You can continue to harvest pods through week 12 of these plants' growing cycle if the weather stays cool and the plants stay well-picked. Let's look at how to harvest these pods.

How to Harvest Sugar Snap Peas

Keep two words in mind when it comes to harvesting your snap peas: early and often.

You might love the way your vines look dripping with pods, but it's best to keep your vines picked. The more your vine has to support developed pea pods, the less energy it has to produce new ones. During the peak of your plants' production, you might even want to come out every day to harvest.

Pods are sweetest when they're still green and tender, before the peas inside have swelled up enough to really press against the sides of the shell. Waiting too long gives the sugars inside the pod more time to turn into starch, which can eventually make the pod inedible.

To harvest sugar snaps, wipe a pair of pruners down with some rubbing alcohol and grab a bowl. Start at the base of the pea plant and work your way up as you look for pods ready to be enjoyed. Cut the stem right above the pod.

It's tempting to snap pods off with your fingers, but you risk breaking the vine, which is a total bummer. One of my kids was out helping me in the garden one time and accidentally yanked the entire plant from the soil. (Peas have shallow root systems.)

Once you've harvested the pods, you might be thinking, "But wait a minute, this isn't enough pods for a whole dish." It's better to go ahead and get mature pods off the plant, store them in the fridge (more on that in a bit), and wait a couple days until more pods are ready than to leave all of these pods on the plant until you have enough for a complete dish.

Don't forget that every part of this plant is edible: the leaves, the stems, and of course, the entirety of the pod, including shell and pea. Before I even get pods forming on my plants, I love to harvest some pea shoots (those young leaves, hollow stems, and delicate tendrils) and stir fry them with some oil, salt, and a little vinegar. It's such an easy yet gourmet garden-to-table meal, and you don't even have to wait for the peas to produce to make it.

How Many Pods Can Each Sugar Snap Peas Plant Produce?

You should expect to get about a fourth of a pound of peas per plant per week. That means you probably need to grow several plants in order to harvest enough for your family to enjoy. If you want to get one pound per week of peas, you need at least four plants.

Sugar Snap Peas Health Benefits

Sugar snap peas are so incredibly good for you. They're an excellent source of vitamins C, A, and K. In fact, just 3.5 ounces of sugar snaps provide 100 percent of your daily needs for vitamin C.

Sugar Snap Peas Calories

These peas have only 42 calories per 100g. That means they're a low-calorie yet highly nutritious snack option.

Sugar Snap Peas Carbs

Both snow peas and sugar snap peas contain less starch than the typical shelled pea, which means they contain fewer carbs. Sugar snaps have about 7.5g of carbs per 100g.

Sugar Snap Peas Fiber

Sugar snaps have about 4g of fiber per 100g. Tossing some peas into your daily salads is a great way to up your fiber intake.

How to Eat Sugar Snap Peas

Here's my favorite way to enjoy sugar snap peas: straight off the vine. Simply snap off the end of the pod and remove any strings. Sugar snap peas are delicious when eaten raw thanks to their tender but crisp texture. In fact, their creator called them the perfect garden snack because they don't even really need to be washed off.

There are many ways to enjoy the sugar snap peas that make their way from the garden into your kitchen:

• toss them in a salad for some sweetness
• roast them with olive oil
• sauté them lightly with garlic
• steam them
• add them to a stir fry
• pickle them in a brine
• dip them in hummus or vegetable dip
• add them to a pasta dish

Unless you're eating sugar snap peas raw, be mindful of how much you're cooking them. They will quickly lose that awesome crispness with heat.

How to Store Sugar Snap Peas

For best storage, don't wash your pods when you bring them inside. Store them dry in a paper bag in the vegetable drawer of your fridge. Keep them only for a couple days so you can enjoy them when they're at their best.

Avoid storing peas outside of the fridge. Within just a few hours at room temp, their sugar content will begin turning into starch.

It's Pea Growing Time!

If you're about to hit a cooler season, have the peas of mind to plant some sugar snaps. Peas are a wonderful addition to your garden. All you gotta do is plant some seeds right along a trellis, and pretty soon, you'll be harvesting your own delicious pods and popping them into your mouth.

Love, peas, and happiness from my garden to yours!