My sow and grow tips for sugar snaps are the same as my tips for peas. Sugar Snaps prefer soil temperature between 45° and 75°F for germination. The best time to sow peas is about 1 1/2 months before your average last frost date or 3 months before your average first frost date.
Outdoor Sowing Tips:
Soak the seeds for about 6 hours to speed up germination.
Sow sugar snap seeds about 1inch deep and 2 inches apart in front of a trellis.
Cover the area where you planted the seeds with netting or a row cover to keep the birds from eating the seeds.
Initially water the seeds from above until the seeds germinate, then switch to the drip system.
Indoor Sowing Tips:
Most seed companies don’t encourage indoor sowing for pea seeds, but I do it all the time.
Soak the seeds for 6 hours to speed up germination.
Put the sugar snap seeds in seed trays under grow lights until the shoots are about 2 to 3 inches high.
Carefully remove the seedlings from the seed tray and transplant them two inches apart.
Don’t forget to harden off the seedlings before transplanting.
Plant the seedlings two inches apart in front of a trellis.
Growing Tips:
You can extend the planting and transplanting schedules and be prepared for crazy temperature swings by using hoop tunnels and garden fabric.
Hill the soil around the row of sugar snaps so they don’t sit in too much water especially during the spring rainy season.
Keep the sugar snap seedlings and plants moist but not soggy by using a drip system.
Since sugar snaps love cooler weather and the roots are relatively shallow, you may want to use some leaf mold as mulch as the temperature heats up in early summer.
As for vertical gardening, it is a good idea to be ready with a trellis. I am using cattle fencing trellis for the tall vining varieties and a 4 foot trellis for the small vining varieties.
As the sugar snaps start to vine, intertwine the plants through the trellis for support. While the plants have tendrils, they sometimes grow too fast. To give the pea plants some extra support, I often use stretchy or Velcro plant tape.
Also, birds like to land on the trellis and nibble on the plants so I drape reflective tape over the sugar snap plants to deter them.
Don’t forget that sugar snaps are part of the Legume family and are a Pod veggie.
