Growing Sugar Snap Peas | 7 Tips for Healthy Plants
About the Author: Jeremy Starke
I've been growing vegetables since I was 12 — over 30 years in the dirt. I share what actually works in my own Zone 6b garden, and what I wish someone had told me when I started.
Zone 6b · North Carolina · Gardening since age 12What is healthy and sweet that can be added to stir fry or into your salads? You guessed it - Sugar Snap Peas. Growing sugar snap peas is a breeze when you direct sow seeds in your garden at the right time of the year.
Sugar snaps are a much like snow peas & garden ones. Sugar snap peas are a cross between snow peas and garden peas.
What is the best way to grow sugar snap peas in your garden? We prefer to grow peas by directly sowing the pea seeds in the garden soil.
You can easily grow peas from seeds. Follow these simple tips below to help you plant sugar snap peas like a garden boss:
- Start your seeds of sugar snap peas in the ground for healthiest plants
- Planting peas around when the temperature is just right for the seeds to sprout quickly
- Feed peas with the right nutrients
- Plant peas in an area with adequate sunlight
- Watering best practices for growing your snap peas
- Get your soil mixture and pH just right for your peas
- Know when to pick & harvest peas
1- Start Your Sugar Snap Peas in The Ground For Healthiest Plants
Start your seeds of sugar snaps in the ground or its final destination. Growing peas like this will help to produce a healthier plant.
This tip applies to any sweet peas & most vegetables. It's always smart to start planting from seed if at all possible.
Snap Peas can readily acclimate a lot easier to those growing conditions when it's growing in the soil and its roots remain untouched.
Most peas that you get from a greenhouse or nursery are given ideal conditions with ideal temperatures and ideal soil.
The pea plant are given a lot of fertilizer and they're growing nice and tall for you.
You throw them in the ground here and the peas might be a little bit less than ideal.
You get something called transplant shock and that is a gardener's worst nightmare because it affects the time till maturity for your peas.
We will try to keep all these things in mind with these tips to help grow peas.
When it comes to pea plants, there is nothing more crucial than the time to maturity simply because peas are one of those fringe plants that you need to get the timing right between spring and summer.
Of course, we still recommend planting peas in containers for this to also help get this timing down.
Usually you plant peas about 2 inches apart at a depth of about 1 inch to 2 inches deep. 1 inch deep is what I do for my Fall crops since the soil is warmer.
You can space peas more than 2 inches apart if you want, but I wouldn't suggest to put seeds any closer in your garden.
2- Planting the Snap Peas Seeds
Sugar snap peas - it's not really an early spring vegetable and it's not really a summer vegetable. It is sorta in "The Space Between" as the Dave Matthews Band sang about. It is that gray area where planting peas the right date is important to keep in mind.
The ideal temperature to grow peas in your garden is not when there is frost all day because they won't grow very fast. The temperature to grow sugar snap peas can't be too hot otherwise you'll notice that they start to burn.
Geez, growing snap peas sounds like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to get it just right.
That perfect timing is during the transition from early spring till summer, which is usually around St Patrick's Days (March 17) in most parts of the northern hemisphere.
You want to make sure that the night temperatures are averaging above freezing and around 80 degrees.
You may also plant in the Fall. Start with a planting of peas in late summer to early Fall to pick before last frost date.
Check out the post below to get more information about growing peas & gardening tips.
3- Feed the Sugar Snap Peas with the right nutrients
Fertilizing your pods is definitely a step that some people might skip. Peas are one of those vegetables that do produce its own nitrogen.
Most people think "Its nitrogen-fixing, so you don't need any fertilizer. It's going to fix its own nitrogen and grow very well." Unfortunately, this sentiment is not ideal.
All nitrogen-fixing plants, whether or not it's a bush bean, a pole bean or sugar snap pea plant or any of your legume family plants needs to be fertilized.
Fertilizing is so important because the difference that you will have in your harvest in your plant's health and just the plant size is so incomparable.
We always give our snap peas a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. You can give them a one to one ratio of fish emulsion and blood meal. You want to add this directly in the planting hole, so when the seeds sprout, they're literally growing in that.
You can give the pea seeds an additional boost of nitrogen once they start flowering. The flowering will happen naturally. Growing sugar snap peas is not like tomatoes where you stress the plant with phosphorous to grow it to flower.
The added nitrogen encourages the pea plant to grow taller and greener all along the stem. Once the sugar snap pea plant reaches a certain height and a certain age, it's going to set flowers regardless of how much phosphorus you have or not and that's the miracle behind peas.
4- Place Your Peas In Adequate Sunlight
Another crucial and important factor along with the temperature is sunlight. You may have very sporadic temperatures early in the spring and that is obviously due to the sun.
You don't want the sugar snap peas plants in the hot gleaming sun all day long because they will fry and believe it or not, peas don't need that much sun.
You can grow them in about 5 to 6 hours of full sun. Sugar snap peas will even do well in as little as 4-5 hours.
You don't need to put peas in full sun. Don't give them eight hours, don't give him 10 hours.
Too much sunlight will cause the bottoms to start turning yellow and brown. At this point, hey can't uptake water and it's going to kill the top soft slowly.
The tops always seem to be a shade of green and the bottom always seems to be yellow. Put them in a spot with 5-6 hours of sunlight.
More Info
Growing sugar snap peas is not very difficult at all. They are pretty easy to grow once you grow them a few times and are accustomed to variable weather conditions during this fringe period.
Sometimes you have colder spring, sometimes you have hot, warmer springs.
The temperature variances are always changing year by year. You will find using the tips above will pretty much guarantee you will grow peas. Hopefully, you will play in the dirt while growing your sugar snap peas.
Check out our mega insider secret gardening tips guide to growing snow peas, garden peas, and everything in between here.
Let me know in the comments below what types of peas you are growing or any other questions you want to be answered.
Meet Jeremy Starke
I've been growing vegetables since I was 12 — over 30 years in the dirt. I share what actually works in my own Zone 6b garden, and what I wish someone had told me when I started.
Zone 6b · North Carolina · Gardening since age 12 Read My Story →Frequently Asked Questions
How do you grow sugar snap peas?
Sow seeds directly in cool early-spring soil, give them a trellis to climb, full sun, and steady water. They're ready in about 60 days.
Do sugar snap peas need a trellis?
Most vining types do. A trellis keeps pods off the soil, improves airflow, and makes picking much easier.
When should you plant sugar snap peas?
As soon as the soil can be worked in spring. They're a cool-season crop and fade once summer heat sets in.
