Some garden books say you can't transplant snap peas, instead just direct sow them early. I disagree. When we say snap peas, I think most of us mean sugar snap peas, the kind that barely make it from the garden into the kitchen. Someone has taught the Labradors to eat peas, so most of our sugar snap peas never get to the kitchen.
Sugar Snaps started from seed.
Lots of ‘how to plant peas' texts say to plant the seeds as early as you can work the ground. Saying you can even plant them when there's still snow on the ground. I've tried this, digging out some dirt as sowing a line of peas.
That didn't work too well.
Sugar snap transplants planted at the same time.
Transplant Snap Peas, my step by step process:
- Wait too long to start sugar snap peas in seed starting pots
- Buy transplants at the local nursery.
- Plant them.
- And, BTW, sow some snap pea seeds as well.
I am great to waiting too long to get my pea seed in the ground, but if remember, I pick up some legume inoculant, as stated in my friend Kenny's excellent how to plant snap peas post. If you don't have the inoculant, don't worry, you should still get the seeds or plants in the ground.
Sugar Snap Pea Transplants I grew myself. Nice!
The transplants go in right quick, not much rocket science here. I sow the seeds pretty thick in a row 1″ deep and then tamp down the soil over them. The seeds wills split underground, so give them some ground, and the leaves emerge up through the soil. You may see the seed itself pushing through the soil, I sprinkle some light soil on top of these.
All my peas go at the end of my raised garden beds, learn how to build them here, on a simple trellis. Learn here how to build trellis. The trellises are at the end of all my beds, its the perfect place to put them. They don't take up any room in the veg bed and the Labs can get to them easily.
Another improvement I've made is I extended my soaker hose drip irrigation system to run parallel to the trellis, right up against the end of the bed. This waters the plants nicely, one less thing for me to blank on.
The over-seeding pays off for me, I get lots of plants, and masses of peas. I sometimes have to train the plants up onto the string trellis, but they go from there. What has your experience been when you transplant snap peas? Let me know below.
Some Videos and Posts you might want to check out:
Cardboard Seed Starting Pots – DIY Video
Podcast: Drip Irrigation FAQ – GFR 442
5 Great Seed Starting How To Videos
How To Build A Trellis Garden Video
More GardenFork!
Connie Murray says
Funny how labs love sugar snaps. My golden pretty much loves to eat most veggies — raw. Hopefully he won’t have to trade in his lab card! He is the cutest pest and he is fenced out of the veggie garden. I find that most years I have to buy sugar snap transplants and I sow leftover seeds too. Next year I will buy new seeds and hopefully get better germination!
Eric says
@Connie When I have my act together in late winter, I have been able to do some seed starting of sugar snap peas under the grow lights, and they work well. I have noticed in the garden that the direct seeded plants are catching up to the transplants in height. Going forward I think I will do both. thx!