Heat Today will be hot in the south of the Netherlands: up to 30 degrees! Check whether your reservoir is still full, whether the mix is still moist, shade vulnerable plants around midday, and wait with sowing until it cools down.
How to sow and grow sugar snaps
What are sugar snaps?
The difference is that a sugar snap pod is thick and fleshy, while a snow pea pod is much thinner. You eat snow peas before the peas inside swell; with sugar snaps, you wait until the peas have begun to grow. That's what makes them sweeter, hence the name.
What’s so special about our sugar snap?
Snap peas: full of vitamins, minerals and fiber
Sugar snaps are low in calories, but high in fiber. Fiber is good for your digestion and makes you feel full. They also contain some protein: good for vegans and vegetarians.
You usually eat them cooked but they're also tasty raw. Just don't eat too many raw sugar snaps: like many other legumes, sugar snaps contain some lectins. Lectins in large quantities are a recipe for a stomach ache. Cooking prevents this.
Sugar snap peas
The plants tolerate cold well. You normally sow them in early spring, but you can also try in August. That late crop isn't always successful, but it's certainly worth trying.
- Variety: Jessy
- Family: legume
- Plants per square: 9
- Height: 60 to 70 cm
- Sowing time: mid-February to June, and August
- Sowing depth: 2 to 3 cm
- Time to harvest: 9 to 10 weeks
- Germination: 6 to 24 days at 7 to 23°C
- Sunlight: grows in sun or partial shade
- Packet contents: about 45 seeds, enough for 4 squares
- Yield: about 300 g per square
What do you need to grow your own sugar snaps?
- one 30 x 30 cm square
- MM-mix or HarvestKit Coco Mix
- a spot with at least 4 hours of sunlight a day
How do you sow and grow sugar snaps?
These sugar snaps are included in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app. Use it and you'll get step-by-step guidance from seed to harvest.
Each vegetable goes through a number of stages, which we call levels. The app tells you exactly what to do at each level and regularly asks you to check whether your plants are ready to move on to the next one.
So you don't need to know how to grow sugar snaps successfully before you start. But if you'd like to read ahead, here's what the entire process looks like.
Level 1: Pre-sprouting sugar snaps
Level 1: Pre-sprout sugar snaps
Before sowing the peas outside in your raised bed, let them develop a small root. This helps them emerge more reliably.
The easiest way is to place them on or between damp sheets of kitchen roll. The peas germinate after about four days, after which you sow them directly in your raised bed.
Level 2: Sowing sugar snaps
Level 2: Sow sugar snaps
- make 9 holes in the square, 2 to 3 cm deep
- choose the best peas and place 1 in each hole, taking care not to damage the roots
- carefully close the holes
If it's still very cold in early spring, it will take a little longer. You can speed things up by covering them with an MM-Muts or some plastic containers. This also stops birds from picking out the peas.
Level 3: Sugar snap seedlings
Level 3: Sugar snap seedlings
Then it's time for the next level.
Level 4: Caring for your plants
Level 4: Care for your sugar snap plants
They'll grow fast in the coming weeks. You don't have to do much at all. Easy 🙂
Level 5: Give your plants support with a rack
Level 5: Place a support over your sugar snap plants
As the plants grow, they soon become too floppy to stand upright by themselves.
Place a small support over the plants.
You can easily make one from a piece of garden mesh.
Four bamboo canes arranged like a wigwam over the square, with some string wound around them, work too.
The first flowers appear about two weeks later.
Level 6: Blooming sugar snaps
Level 6: Flowering sugar snaps
Level 7: Harvesting
Level 7: Harvest your first sugar snaps
Harvest as soon as you see the first pods. That way the plants produce more flowers. More flowers mean more peas.
It's normal for the leaves to turn a little yellow and get uglier, especially around the bottom of the plant.
How do you use sugar snaps?
Blanch or steam your sugar snaps and toss them in a wok or stir-fry dish, or make salads with them.
You can eat them raw as well - just not too many at once.
The last levels
The final levels
At the final level, empty the square or your MM-Mini and prepare it for the next vegetable.
So, ready to grow your own sugar snaps?
Plus: with our materials and with help from the app, it's practically impossible to fail 😉
Order your sugar snap seeds here or get started with a complete starter kit:
