Snow peas are one of my favourite edible plants to grow in my working garden. This annual flowering vine produces crisp edible pods and peas bursting with colour and flavour.
My boys love picking the pods with me when we pop out to get fresh ingredients for salads, stir fries and curries.
Taste/Aroma:
Raw pods and peas are crisp and very sweet. Cooking them makes the pods soft and the peas less sweet. The seeds remain plump though.
Very nice taste and texture regardless.
Flower:
Pods:
Plant:
Grow It Perth
Planting/Care:
Make a trellis out of 6 foot wooden stakes and twine. The plants will attach themselves to the twine using tendrils but I also wind in and out of the twine for more support. Top them once they are taller than the trellis to encourage horizontal growth and strength.
Here is an example trellis Ben and his family made in 2016:
Fertilise with high nitrogen liquid fertiliser at first and then low nitrogen, high potassium fertlisers to support the pea pods’ development.
Snow peas are very sensitive to average temperature and some years are less suitable to their success than others. They also have a delicate stem at their base and a small root structure. Be sure to thin seedlings so they don’t compete for the same nutrients and choose a spot that gets lots of winter sun.
Dry the seeds of healthy, heavy producing plants for the next planting.
When the plants are spent, turn the roots back into the soil to take advantage of this legume’s ability to fix nitrogen. Plant nitrogen loving edibles in the location next growing cycle followed by plants that don’t need nitrogen.
Related Links:
- see more snow pea posts here
- go to all meal ingredients
- go the Grow It Perth calendar