Caring for snow peas – How to grow snow peas
A snow pea is a real treat to be picked directly from the garden and eaten fresh. These sweet and crunchy peas, eaten in their pods and everything else, are best eaten fresh but can also be cooked, canned and frozen. If you don’t have enough, try adding Super Snappy pea plants to your fall garden, which produce the largest sweet pea pods.
Information on snow peas
Burpee Super Snappy peas are the largest sugar peas. The pods contain eight to ten peas. You can leave the pods to dry and remove only the peas you want to use, but like other varieties of sugar snap peas, the pod is just as delicious. Enjoy the whole pod with fresh peas in tasty dishes like French fries, or keep them frozen.
For a pea, Super Snappy is unique among the varieties because it does not need support to grow. The plant measures only about 2 feet (.6 m.), or a little more, and is strong enough to stand on its own.
How to grow Super Snappy garden peas
These peas take 65 days to go from seed to maturity, so if you live in zones 8 to 10, you can sow them directly in the spring or fall and get a double harvest. In colder climates, you may need to start indoors in the spring and direct seed in mid to late summer to get a fall crop.
You can use seed inoculation before planting if you have not purchased a product that has already been inoculated. This process allows the legumes to fix nitrogen from the air, resulting in better growth. This step is not necessary, especially if you have grown peas without inoculation in the past.
Sow directly or start the seeds in the cultivated soil with fertilizer. Space the seeds about 2 cm apart at a depth of about 2.5 cm. Once you have the seedlings, thin them out until they are about 10 cm (25 cm) apart. Keep your pea plant well watered but not soaked.
Harvest your Super Snappy peas when the pods are large, bright green and crispy, but before the peas inside are fully developed. If you want to use only the peas, leave them on the plant longer. They should be easy to pick by hand.
