SeedsWholesale

Sugar Peas

Pea is a frost-hardy, cool-season vegetable that can be grown throughout most of the United States, wherever a cool season of sufficient duration exists. For gardening purposes, peas may be classified as garden peas (English peas), snap peas and snow peas (sugar peas). Garden pea varieties have smooth or wrinkled seeds. The smooth-seeded varieties tend to have more starch than the wrinkled-seeded varieties. The wrinkled-seeded varieties are generally sweeter and usually preferred for home use. The smooth-seeded types are used more often to produce ripe seeds that are used like dry beans and to make split-pea soup. Snap peas have been developed from garden peas to have low-fiber pods that can be snapped and eaten along with the immature peas inside. Snow peas are meant to be harvested as flat, tender pods before the peas inside develop at all. The Southern pea (cowpea) is an entirely different warm-season vegetable that is planted and grown in the same manner as beans.

This pea has aroused considerable excitement! No other is quite like it, as, if it is picked young, the fleshy pods can be treated like French beans, cooked and served whole. Older pods should be "stringed", but still cooked whole. Try serving the pods raw in a salad. A most worthwhile and versatile pea.

When to plant outdoors: March to June
How to grow outdoors: Sow in flat trenches 6in (15cm) wide, and 2in (5cm) deep. Plant seeds in a zig-zag fashion along the middle of the trench, allowing 3in (7.5cm) between them. Fill trenches with soil and gently firm down. Where more than one row of peas is required, allow 3ft (90cm) between rows. Protect from birds with netting or black cotton during the early stages of growth. We advise using sticks or twigs to support the crop as this will make picking easier and improve yields. Keep well watered.

Harvest: June onwards

Packet 2g 1000 seeds $2.95