Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea

After purchasing several grocery store pea packets last year, Oregon Sugar Pod had edged out the others in taste and production. I was excited to see Rare Seeds offers them in a half pound pack for a very reasonable price...enough to sow heavy successions in our garden in both Spring and Fall, maybe even two years in a row. When I opened the packet, the peas where not uniform in color, which struck me as odd since I was pretty certain OregonSugar Pod bore uniformly color peas (I think the ones I’d down prior where all green). I plant straight from the pack and waited. The peas grew and produced well, but many where off types (some seemed to be shelling or soup peas as the pods where tough no matter how small they where picked, prior experience tells me Oregon Sugar Pod doesn’t go tough even after the peas inside have become over mature and bitter). Needs some re-selection IMO. I removed the yellow peas for my second planting, hopefully that eliminates some of the off types.

Observations from four consecutive seasons suggest: Disease resistant. Pods however, only grow to a maximum of 3 inches before they start filling out. Unlike advertised to grow 18-30 inches vines, when trellised, will climb to 5 feet. Young pods keep well under refrigeration if packed loosely in partially open Zip-Lock bags. Tender when young, super sweet when steamed.

This is one of the best tasting of the four pea varieties I planted this year. I tried growing it as a bush pea without any support, planting seeds close together so they can hold each other up. This was not all that successful. The peas have fallen over on each other and finding the pods isn't that easy. My trellised peas are much easier to pick. Next year I'll put these on a trellis too.

I planted Oregon Sugar Pod II & I thought they were a little stringy, it may be something I did or didn't do, they tasted great. I bought a large bag of seed, so I'm going to replant again this fall. I've been buying my seeds from Baker Creek Seed Co. for the past 5 to 6 years have not been disappoint.

For some reason, I've never been successful at growing peas in my garden. We have a very long, hot gardening season and I've had difficulty finding the right timing and variety of peas to grow. I direct seeded these in early October (while temps were still in the 90's) and began harvesting mid-February. They were able to withstand the few evenings of light freeze that we get in winter. I grew them on chicken wire for support and found they needed a little help finding the chicken wire and attaching their tendrils at the beginning but they eventually got going on their own and really held on through some windy storms. They were delicious raw, right out of the garden as well as stir fried. I'm thrilled to have found this variety. It will be a regular in my garden.