I've hot tried to let them sprawl so I have no experience with yhis. I trellis mine on remesh.....either round tomato remesh cages or straight sections. Our local garden center purchases seeds in bulk and repacks into smaller packs for sale. One of the seeds they repack is a bush variety of sugar snaps. This seems to be an option worth trying (in future).

Unless they are one of the few bush-types then yes you do.

Ideas for pea trellis discussions

Dave

Shorter plant height sugar snap varieties have been available for many years and if you are growing any of those varieties specified at 18" height or less than you probably are wasting time to support. If you find that you have a taller growing sugar snap variety than there are various options: netting, string lines, even sticks positioned in a lattice.

The variety Sugar Snap grows 6 feet tall on weak vines... so yes.

I think that the Super Sugar Snap peas which grow tall are of better quality than the bush type.

I suppose if you didn't trellis them, you'd just end up with vines laying all over the bed, and probably beyond it. Mainly a mess, making it hard to hard to pick out the fruit. Also, it'll be almost impossible to keep the plants dry, so downy mildew is likely. So in principle, no you don't have to trellis, but you'll regret not doing so.

Trellis is also a function of climate. In a cool, damp climate with an abundance of slugs and snails unsupported peas are just a disaster, however short. The vines get muddy, mouldy and tangled and the peas get dirty and eaten. Plus they take up more space which could be growing something else.

They're burpee guisante sugar snap peas. I'll have to do some research about if they're trellis type and what's the best system

"Tall, vigorous vines". Also, it's kind of late for peas, no? Planting now is looking to harvest in mid-July, which in most parts of the country is too hot for peas.

That's what they are Dave. They'll get about 4'-6' the website said. They have been planted for a while. Over a foot high but started falling over which is why I questioned the need for a trellis. Guess I better get building and fast. Thanks

I planted my Sugar Snaps around April 1st, they took a long time to germinate in the cold soil, and are now already about 3' high. Hoping they start flowering before it gets too hot.

For a quik sleezy (easy) trellis... on both ends of the row take a 10 ft 4x4 and bury them 3-4 feet deep with bags of quikcrete (2-3 per pole)... get some laminated braided metal line (like old time clothes line) and string from pole to pole at top and middle. You will probably have to put line tensioners on one side of each line as well. Then drape down a strand of cotton/ jute/ hemp twine to each plant. You might have to start them, but they will climb the twine.

Doesn't sound all that quick and easy to me, Tim ;-) Since peas need to be sown so thick to get a crop surely it would take ages to supply sufficient strings. And the peas are grown in a different place every year so a concreted in trellis seems overkill. I just use twiggy branches from the winter fruit pruning. They're free, plentiful, bio-degradable and it's just a matter of shoving them into the ground.

I use a 4 foot light fence that is supported by 4 steel rods....10 minute job to install. I plant a double row of peas and set the fence in the middle.

I put some stakes in the ground and used string for now to keep them off the ground. Would the 6x6 concrete mesh work or are the holes to big? I'm going to use it for my cucumbers. I can get a bunch of the mesh.

I use 4 metal fence posts, Put 2 on each end about 8 inches apart, Then use 5 foot high fencing and run it on both sides, Then plant peas on one side and beans on the other side and then put hay or straw between the fence so weeds don't grow.

Steel fence posts and galvanized fencing is working well for me. I wouldn't want to deal with it for a larger patch though. I had extra from my garden fence.

yeah if you have that large a patch and rotate, it would not work! Sounds like you found a way though, good luck :)

It is better to use support. The shoots are tender and fragile. We put the trellis a bit late this year and the pea bed is already sort of messy. Makes it hard to harvest, too

That's why I plant the dwarf varieties. No mess, no material cleanup, for a crop that has a two- three week harvest window. But then I can sympathize with those who have a variety that they believe has better flavor. I plant with tractor drawn planter and always plant twice what I can harvest. I also cultivate with tractor drawn cultivator, but picking is by hand. I prefer not to pick around trellis although I'll admit lifting and moving plants in the picking process often leaves the brittle plants injured. Usually by the second picking I'm pulling plants from the ground. A cumbersome trellis just doesn't fit in my growing routine.

I am wondering if it's to late to plant the sugar snap peas here in zone 8 since I see they don't like heat.?

People need to know a geographical location to answer that question, gardenpondr. Z8 doesn't give us any information on your spring or summer conditions, only winter temps. I haven't sown any peas yet but I have a z8 with cool summers.