I'd like to know if snow peas and sugar snap peas are the same thing? I want the pods used in stir-fry. Are there any special tricks to growing them? I think they are a cooler season crop and don't like hotter weather?

No: snow peas have flat pods and are used before peas form. Snap peas have round fleshy pods. Snap peas are more heat tolerant. Both have about the same growing conditions. http://www.ehow.com/about_6524...

You can stir fry either but as farmerdill stated, they are not the same thing. Snow peas are the traditional type flat pods found in chinese cooking. Snap peas are not picked flat but instead you wait until the pods flesh out and then pick and eat pods and all. Snap peas are also called Sugar Snap peas and are delicious eatten raw.

Okay, that helps alot, thanks so much!

I used to grow only snow pea pods, but then tried snap pea pods. I have yet to stir fry any. They are so sweet and juicy that they seldom make it all the way into the house. I would pick a double handful and eat them all while driving to work.

I often let the (flat, thin) snow pea pods grow until they plump up and have visible fat peas. They are a little less sweet and less tender that way, but have a much greater yield since each pod is plump.

I like snap pea pods better, since they are "designed" to be sweet and tender at the stage I like the pods (big and fat). But even they get starchy and tougher when TOO big.

I like pole pea pods better than bush: I get more peas, I bend over less to harvest, and I have to provide strings to bush peas anyway, or they sag onto the soil.

I didn't taste much difference between 'Sugar Snap' and 'Super Sugar Snap', but 'Super Sugar Snap' yielded more and was a few days earlier. Both are vine types with 5' - 6' vines. 'Super Sugar Snap' is my current favorite.

Here are some other snap or snow peas I'm going to test eventually:

pole snap/snow pea "mangiatutto"
'Carouby de Maussane'
also called:
Pisello Rampicante Gigante Svizzero
(I tried these several times but got low germination in cold wet clayey soil. "Pick when the peas have just started to swell for best taste".)

bush snap pea:
'Cascadia'
'Sugar Ann' ("Extra early compared to other snap peas. 1984 AAS winner. Sprout on paper towels to prevent rotting.")


My favorite snow pea pod so far is unfortunately a bush variety:
'Oregon Sugar Pod II '. It stays pretty sweet and tender while the pods get very big.

I also plan to try :
'Rembrandt' snow pea pods with 4' vines

and

'Avalanche' bush snow pea pods "Semi-leafless, many tendrils for garnishes (semi-afila type)"

Rick, I don't think I could taste any difference between 'Sugar Snap' and 'Super Sugar Snap', either. But I grew them in different years. These days I grow Super Sugar Snap. But my favorites are Sugar Lace II. I have grown Cascadia and it is a nice variety.

I have grown Oregon Sugar Pod II and was very pleased with the production I got from those plants. Fantastic flavor in general, perfect for stir-fry.

This pic shows them at the stage they are usually picked...

They are great when that thin, and I would say "perfect for salad or stir-fry".

But I also like them big and plump with peas that pop out of the pod and can be crunched separately.

I think it means that I've found out that I like snap peas even better than snow peas!

Snap peas are much sweeter than snow peas. But I do love stir fried snow peas or snow peas added to veggie stir fries. As long as the pods are flat. I always pick them flat.

I think that most of the world agrees with you, for snow pea pods. Flat = tenderest + sweetest.

I might be indignant if a restaurant served me tough or starchy snow pea pods. And yet, when it is my own produce, sometimes I want a big mouthful more than I want tenderness.

I have eaten snow pea pods raw off the vine that are beginning to swell. More Chewy than I like. I will stick to picking them flat.

Hmm, mine usually crunch even when getting fat. That's one reason I like the Oregon Sugar Pod II so much: they stay crisper, longer.

Maybe if I ever grow so many snap peas that I have more than I want, I'll go back to picking snow pea pods younger for the delicacy.

I've had the best luck with Dwarf Grey. They can be eaten flat or filled out. This year I tried Oregon Giant. Poor germination but the ones that produced, WOW, they were huge so I will try them again this year.

Do does anyone grow the English peas, you know, the ones you don't eat the pods, just the peas? What varieties?

Of course, but this thread is about snow and snap peas.
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Willet Wonder

I call those green peas or garden peas. I grow Green Arrow. It is a nice shelling pea. They are really grown the same way as any of the other peas. You know, same as Snap pr Snow peas.

Farmerdill, those are gorgeous! Making me hungry for peas!

abhege said:Farmerdill, those are gorgeous! Making me hungry for peas!

Great peas. Wish it was time for peas.

My Willet Wonders are almost 2 inches tall, April harvest. handling 15 degree lows very well.

Wow, that's fantastic. But we're supposed to even go as low as 7 degrees on Mon. night. But I don't have anything in the garden now anyway except the carrot tops left behind after the voles came through.

I don't know what has happened, I usually have a fantastic fall garden. So now I'm hoping we have a drier spring than last year so I can at least get things planted early enough to beat the heat.

I am wishing it was time for something to be growing in my veggie garden. But I can't even start spring peas till about March 15th here.