Several of us raise sugar snap peas. I have tried shell out peas but gave up on them as the sugar snaps produce more. I froze 40 some lbs last year and I believe Dawn did the same. There is still time to get some started for most of Oklahoma this year. If you do a search of this site you should find several posts by both me and others about how to start them to get a dependable harvest. I planted a 25 ft row of started plants today and a 25 ft row last Sunday. You have to be ready with the blood meal and human hair to protect from the rabbits.

do they come in bush varities or only vining? i want to avoid trellises on everything but my cukes this year

Like Dorothy, I grow edible-podded peas and feel like we get a good enough harvest that it is worth the space devoted to growing them. I don't grow green shelling peas because by the time you shell them, you don't have a lot of harvest in comparison to the space used.

There are several dwarf or bush-type edible-podded peas, including Sugar Mel, Cascadia, Sugar Daddy and Sugar Lace. The problem with the dwarf or bush-types is that when they breed them down to a smaller size, the flavor seems diminished as well. Also, most bush varieties still perform better with some support even though they don't need a tall trellis like the vining types do.

I planted six kinds of edible-podded peas this year, and 5 of them are vining types and 1 is the bush type. I only planted the bush type because I figured I could squeeze in one more row of peas by putting the shorter bush plants in a single row on the south side of the bed containing the tall, trellised peas.

Most of my vining types range in height from 4 to 12" at the present time. My bush peas range in height from 1 to 2" and it seems like they are very slow growers compared to the vining types. All the peas were planted the same day.

In general, I prefer taller trellised plants because you get a much higher yield per square foot from tall, trellised plants, However, bush plants stay so small that you can squeeze in some extra plants in a raised bed like I did. I also grow both pole and bush beans. In the case of beans, the bush beans produce earlier and the pole beans produce later, so growing both is a harvest-extending method.

With edible-potted peas, the key to success is to get them in the ground in March (and for most parts of OK, generally the earlier the better) so they can produce before the hot weather arrives. Once the heat arrives, the peas are pretty much done.

Dawn

Dawn,

You mentioned growing six different types of edible pod peas. Just curious, what varieties are you growing?

Lynn

Lynn,

I'm growing these:
Sugar Snap
Super Sugar Snap
Opal Creek Yellow (lemon yellow pods from white blossoms)
Spring Blush (green pods with an organza-like pink overlay, reddish-purple flowers)
Carouby Mangiatutto (seed is Franchi-Sementi seed from Seeds From Italy, but the variety itself is a French heirloom)
Cascadia (this is the dwarf one that is so slow in comparison to the others)

I always grow Sugar Snap and Super Sugar Snap. I think Sugar Snap has superior flavor but it is prone to powdery mildew, so I grow Super Sugar Snap in case PM gets the Sugar Snaps early.

I haven't grown Opal Creek Yellow or Spring Blush before, but was intrigued by the idea of having two long trellises with a variety of differently-colored blooms and pods.

The heirloom variety is also new to me, but I've liked pretty much everything I've grown from Seeds From Italy, so thought I'd give it a try.

I bought seed for Cascadia last year and didn't use it, so thought I'd use it this year to squeeze in an extra row along the edge of the pea bed. So far, it has been very slow to sprout and very slow to grow compared to the others.

The Spring Blush plants have a bit of pink at each spot where leaves are attached to the stem and I'm looking forward to seeing how much pink shows up in the flowers and pods.

That's my pea plant report.

If I had any seeds of Spring Blush or Opal Creek Yellow left, I'd send them to you to try, but I planted all of them. If you're interesting in reading more about them or ordering them, they're available from Nichols Garden Nursery. At the Nichols website, one of the shows up under "New for 2011" and the other one shows up on the pea page.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Nichols Garden Nursery

Dawn, that's what I grew last year - Cascadia, and it was terribly slow to grow, even though I started it in peat pots and then transplanted, sans pots to the garden. I'm not growing it this year, and am instead opting for Super Sugar Snap and Sugar Snap instead.

I don't think we are going to get as long a harvest as we did last year.

Susan

I don't think we will either. It is going to get too hot too early. It hit 26 degrees here last night, but we'll be in the 80s by the end of the week. The see-sawing temperatures are hard on the plants.

I suspect the 26-degree night just wiped out my plum and peach crop, but won't know for a few days yet. I don't know how long we were below freezing, but we had frost forming between 9 and 10 p.m. and still had frost on the plants at 8 a.m. so I'm expecting the worst for the fruit.

Dawn,

Your new pea varieties sound absolutely wonderful! What a bonus to have a beautiful display of color as well. Last year I grew out Sugar Snaps, Green Arrow and Blondie. They all tasted great. This year I'm growing Super Sugar Snaps and Snow Wind snowpea.

Thanks for sharing your list. I knew you couldn't resist some "new to you" varieties so I just had to ask. We newbies love to follow behind a true garden trailblazer.

Lynn

Lynn,

I am looking forward to hearing about your results with Snow Wind. I think it sounds very interesting. Often, with plant breeding designed to increase yield, the flavor suffers but if they can make this one produce as well as they say it will without a corresponding loss of flavor, that would be fantastic.

I don't think I'm a true garden trailblazer as you so kindly worded it....just more of an insane gardening maniac who wants to try growing everything under the sun.

Dawn