Best sugar snap pea?

Seven Bends
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Best sugar snap pea?

#1

Post: # 59244Unread post Seven Bends
Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:53 pm

What's your favorite "sugar snap" type of pea? I'd appreciate any recommendations, and especially for varieties that might do well in northern Virginia, where high heat arrives early, sometimes not long at all after last frost. So, heat tolerance or early maturity are pluses.

I've grown "Sugar Snap" in the past and been happy with it, but this past year the seeds didn't germinate, so I grew "Sugar Daddy." Sugar Daddy was supposed to be a snap pea but turned out to be a super-sweet, really delicious English shelling pea with completely inedible pods. The seeds came from Burpee, and if you read the reviews, lots of people had the same problem. So, I plan to grow the rest of those seeds as shelling peas this year, and I need something else for snap peas.

If your only two choices were Sugar Snap or Super Sugar Snap, which would you choose? What about Sugar Ann, Sugar Sprint, or Cascadia?

Has anyone successfully grown Sugar Daddy as a snap pea in a warm climate? If so, where did you get your seeds?

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bower
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#2

Post: # 59246Unread post bower
Fri Dec 17, 2021 5:18 pm

I grew Sugar Sprint this year and was very pleased with the sweetness, taste and lack of strings. They are small pods though compared to Sugar Snap or Super, and the small plants obviously can't produce the same quantity as a bigger plant. Only about 2 ft tall.
I'm seeing a new variety SS141 advertised, that looks interesting. It's not tall either, but Sugar Sprint is pretty tiny. I would grow Sugar Sprint indoors, may yet manage that this winter ;) SS41 is a bigger plant, but they do say to succession plant because the harvest window is short.
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Nan6b
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#3

Post: # 59249Unread post Nan6b
Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:36 pm

I like Sugar Ann. It's very sweet when the peas mature, and grows well for me. I does get strings at that stage though.

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Tormato
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#4

Post: # 59251Unread post Tormato
Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:58 pm

Super Sugar Snap is by far my favorite. Some say it has stings, but I've never had any problem. Perfect sweetness when raw, almost too sweet for me when cooked and eaten by itself. Mixed with other veggies is how I like SSS.

My first trial with SS141 wasn't impressive. But, for the past several years, the weather, here, has been poor for peas. I think I'm going to try a very heavy mulch in the upcoming year.

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bower
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#5

Post: # 59253Unread post bower
Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:14 pm

What were your issues with SS141 @Tormato ? Maybe I won't waste my money on it...
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root_grow
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#6

Post: # 59254Unread post root_grow
Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:34 pm

Since I'm lucky enough to have long springs and cool summers, I plant a boatload of peas all at once in spring and get fresh peas through July usually. Sugar Anns kick in first and they are my favorites- I'm not sure if it's because they really taste the best or if it's first-of-the-season excitement, or cooler temperatures giving them extra sweetness and crunch, but I love them. I'm always surprised by how productive those little plants are too, and I like that when they're done they're done so I have no problem ripping them out to succession plant.

Cascadia fills the gap between the Sugar Anns and Sugar Snaps. They're good, in my garden they're a bit bigger than the others, so that's nice.

Sugar Snaps are the latest to start producing and for me they keep going until mid-late July or sometimes August if it's a cooler year.

I tried Sugar Daddy this year and my seeds were fine - I got snap peas as expected, but I didn't like them... texture was fine but something about the flavor was... off. They were reserved for cooking.

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Tormato
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#7

Post: # 59263Unread post Tormato
Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:57 pm

Bower wrote: Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:14 pm What were your issues with SS141 @Tormato ? Maybe I won't waste my money on it...
My issues were everything... plant vigor, production, flavor, etc...

But, I'm comparing apples to oranges weatherwise, SS141 in a poor year versus Super Sugar Snap in a previous good year.
I'll keep waiting for that good year to show up, with a side-by-side comparison that has meaning.

Today I picked up Burpee's "new for 2022" First 13 shelling pea.

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rdback
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#8

Post: # 59272Unread post rdback
Sat Dec 18, 2021 8:20 am

Another vote for Super Sugar Snap. I've grown several different varieties, and SSS rose to the top. That being said, the last two Springs have not been kind to peas, at least in our garden.

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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#9

Post: # 59285Unread post Seven Bends
Sat Dec 18, 2021 10:13 am

Thanks all, very helpful. I think I'll go with Super Sugar Snap and either Sugar Ann or Sugar Sprint, depending on what they carry wherever I place my order. DTMs vary widely from vendor to vendor, but I'm guessing the order from earliest to latest is: Sugar Ann, Sugar Sprint, Super Sugar Snap, Cascadia, the 141's, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Snap.

In case it's helpful to anyone else, here are the facts I gathered:

Super Sugar Snap: vines 60", 55-65", 60-72"; DTM 58-66 (58D Territorial, 61D Johnny's, 62D Renee's & Pine Tree, 63D Seeds N Such, 64D Burpee and Parks, 63-65D Vesey, 66D Harris)

Sugar Snap: 72" vines; DTM 58-70 (58D Johnny's, 70D Burpee, Seeds N Such, Botanical Interests)

Sugar Ann: 20", 12-24", 24"; DTM 51-56 (51D Johnny's, 55D Territorial, 56D Seeds N Such)

Sugar Sprint: 24-30", 26"; DTM 55-62 (55D Territorial and Seeds N Such, 58D Pine Tree, 62D Park, Harris, Vesey)

Cascadia:
30", 32", 24-36"; DTM 60-68 (60D Territorial & Pine Tree, 62D Seeds N Such, 68D Vesey)

Sugar Daddy: 24"; DTM 60-68 (60-65D Burpee, 65D Territorial, 68D Renee's)

PL141: 36-48", 60D (Territorial)
PLS141: 30", 64D (Johnny's)
SS141: 35", 65D (Harris)

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Tormato
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#10

Post: # 59287Unread post Tormato
Sat Dec 18, 2021 10:32 am

DTM, here, all grown in the same year...

Sugar Ann - 56
Super Sugar Snap - 63
Sugar Snap - 70

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JRinPA
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#11

Post: # 59288Unread post JRinPA
Sat Dec 18, 2021 11:09 am

The two I grow the most are sugar sprint and cascadia.
Sugar Sprint are more expensive but nearly stringless. The fattest snap peas I have grown (best year) were sugar sprints.
Cascadia are pretty similar, a bit taller, cheaper seed, probably more productive. Strings aren't heavy but are indeed heavier than Sugar Sprint.
I think Cascadia does better in the fall.

Seven Bends
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#12

Post: # 59290Unread post Seven Bends
Sat Dec 18, 2021 11:19 am

JRinPA wrote: Sat Dec 18, 2021 11:09 am The two I grow the most are sugar sprint and cascadia.
Sugar Sprint are more expensive but nearly stringless. The fattest snap peas I have grown (best year) were sugar sprints.
Cascadia are pretty similar, a bit taller, cheaper seed, probably more productive. Strings aren't heavy but are indeed heavier than Sugar Sprint.
I think Cascadia does better in the fall.
Thanks. When do you plant for fall?

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bower
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#13

Post: # 59309Unread post bower
Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:06 pm

Great to see the DTM's, listed and actual.
For the record, Sugar Sprint started to flower for me 44 days from seed (they were soaked first). They only grew about 2 ft tall, it was the hottest part of a hot summer for us.
In other snaps I also grew Sugar Magnolia, they were about 4 ft tall and later to flower than most. Probably 55 days from soaked seed planting.
Sugar Snap and Super Sugar Snap have always been great to grow here, very productive and sweet but more hassle to get tall enough support.
Sugar Ann for some reason never did anything for me here, I have tried a couple of times and got but a few pods.
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#14

Post: # 59312Unread post Gardadore
Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:37 pm

I grow many varieties of peas and agree with most of the reviews above. My favorite is Sugar Daddy because they are completely stringless. I now get them from Rene’s after having problems with the Burpee ones. I really like all of them but love Cascadia and some of the unusual ones from Fedco like Tendersweet, Sugar Lode and Amish Snap, which is an heirloom that grows tall like the Sugar Snap. Sugar Anne and Sprint are also regulars as well. Magnolia Blossom and Sugar Magnolia are interesting and different. The flowers are beautiful but the peas are not as sweet. We enjoyed them but they get mixed reviews. The Sugar Magnolia pods are purple and very prolific as well as long producing. I like them raw mixed with other snap peas in a salad. The Magnolia Blossom had the flowers but green pods. Both grew tall.

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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#15

Post: # 59315Unread post bower
Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:51 pm

Re Sugar Magnolia, yeah I forgot to mention they aren't sweet. I would also say they weren't very heat tolerant, at least they did poorly compared to some. Not many pods and they were small and very slow to fill.
I made a cross between Sugar Magnolia X Sugar Sprint and got a couple of F1 peas. Maybe down the line a sweeter purple pod, or some happy place between heat and cold tolerance... crossing vegs is an addiction. you don't know what you will get, but it might work out well as they adapt to the site..
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Cornelius_Gotchberg
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#16

Post: # 59316Unread post Cornelius_Gotchberg
Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:59 pm

Are Sugar Snap Peas the same as Sugar Snap Beans?

If so? "Wisconsin maintained its NUMBER ONE RANKING in production of processing snap beans with 38 percent of the nation's production. U.S. snap bean production totaled 16.6 million cwt. Sweet corn production in Wisconsin for 2019 totaled 8.65 million cwt from 49,400 harvested acres" (bolds/caps/italics mine)

If not? Reckon we still got that there Cheese Thing to fall back on...

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Nan6b
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#17

Post: # 59322Unread post Nan6b
Sat Dec 18, 2021 7:05 pm

A snap bean is not a snap pea.

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JRinPA
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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#18

Post: # 59432Unread post JRinPA
Mon Dec 20, 2021 3:12 pm

Here, I like to plant August 8th. That is for cascadia. Certainly it is something I want sprout right away, so if it is dry they should be watered. Generally in the spring, I don't really water them.

This year I used some calculator for planting dates (I think it was a spreadsheet downloadable from Johnny's) and came up with mid July. Which seemed way too early, I thought. But I made space and went ahead and planted the 3rd or 4th week of July, on the back side of a squash row. I thought it was too early, and the sugar sprints did not do well. They did not seem to climb well in the heat and stayed very short and never really got above the squash vines and weeds . But I also planted Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas in the same row. They are a longer DTM and that end of the row produced heavily in late Sept/Oct. Same line of drip tape.

Cascadia seems very reliable...but I can count at least 3 lost crops with sugar sprint. Very sub par crops. When they are nice, they're really fat. But seem to be unlucky at times, for me. And I generally don't believe in luck!

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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#19

Post: # 59447Unread post Seven Bends
Mon Dec 20, 2021 5:53 pm

@JRinPA, I think your weather probably is fairly similar to ours here, maybe just a degree or two cooler where you are. I asked about your fall planting date because I've never understood how a cool-weather crop like peas could survive being planted in July or early August around here. It can still be 95 degrees then, but if you wait too long, the sun's too low in the sky for them to mature, or they get zapped by a freeze. Maybe I'll try a fall planting of Cascadias this year in the Aug. 8-15 time frame and see how they do. Usually I can find Cascadia seeds on the racks at our local stores.

I was hoping the earlier DTM of Sugar Sprint would help in this climate, but maybe some of the other varieties are more heat tolerant.

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Re: Best sugar snap pea?

#20

Post: # 59460Unread post Mark_Thompson
Mon Dec 20, 2021 8:05 pm

I’m not much of a pea fanatic but I do enjoy them. Here we call the edible pod peas Chinese Peas. I have an extra packet from last year if anyone wants to try them.



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