It's a variety I've grown in the past. I've loved the fact that the pods are stringless, tender and sweet. It also grows only 3 feet high and is semi-leafless, which makes picking so easy. I could hardly wait for my first harvest of lovely Sugar Lace Snap Peas!
It happened yesterday. Just a handful for my dinner salad, but so many more on the vines! The vines, which are 5 1/2 feet high now, not 3. The vines that have a lot of green, and are definitely not semi-leafless.
I brought my handful of precious peas inside, and proceeded to snap off the ends of the pods. TOUGH! NO SNAP! STRINGS! I bit into one and it was tough and bitter, not a bit of sweetness. I don't know what happened. A couple of weeks ago I took one pod off of a vine and ate it right there in the garden, and it was fine. These weren't over mature at all, as the tiny peas were just barely beginning to form in them.
I planted two packets of those seeds this spring. I can see that some of the vines are shorter, the expected 3-3 1/2 foot height, while some reach nearly to the top of the kennel fence. If it ever stops raining today, I'll go out and taste test from a short vine and a tall vine. In the meantime, my dream of sweet, crisp sugar snaps has turned into a nightmare.
So sorry to hear, Granny. Maybe the seeds inside the packet were mixed up with different varieties. It happened to me. I bought a packet of cabbage, but one plant never formed any head, only big green leaves. Turned out I liked the taste of them, so it was a happy mix-up for me. Not so much for you, I see. Maybe you can use them as shelling peas?
ReplyDeleteLast year I bought a "rose colored" nasturtium that turned out to be bright orange, so it can definitely happen. I also have that one purple flowered pea vine in this same planting, so I'm thinking there was certainly a problem with the seed source somewhere along the line. I will be letting the pods mature, and hope the resulting shelling peas are tasty.
DeleteWell, that is disappointing! You're going to have to get into seed saving with the troubles you've had.
ReplyDeleteStefaneener, I've bought seeds from this company for many, many years. They've always performed well, and been reliable (and they go on sale for 1/2 price every spring)! It's disappointing that I've had a bad experience with them twice in two years. I know they would refund what I paid if I contacted them, but that's not the problem. The problem is that I was really looking forward to those sweet sugar snaps, and it's too late to try again. Maybe next fall. *sigh*
DeleteYou never do know if there was some mix up in the seeds or where it happened. Seed companies for the most part don't grow their own seed, they buy it from seed brokers and repackage it.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, that is exactly what this seed company does, according to the answer I got back from them last year on the nasturtium.
DeleteI love sugar snaps peas and so do the kids. We just go out and graze on them. I'd be so disappointed!
ReplyDeleteI am. I just went out and sampled from a tall vine and a short vine, and they were both tough. I also sampled one full pod, and the peas were sweet. I guess I have peas, rather than pods. Since none of my shelling peas germinated (OK, 3 did out of one hyge pkt., different seed company), at least I won't have too many.
DeleteUm, how do the 'shelling peas' on the other side of the kennel taste? I'm curious if the packets got mixed up now. LOL. That stinks either way. I hope the peas mature into something salvagable at least!
ReplyDeleteBarbie, the shelling peas were in a large Burpee packet (they are the ones that didn't germinate well), and the snap peas were in smaller Ed Hume packets. No way they could have been mixed up! A taste test on the "sugar snaps" tells me the peas inside will be tasty, thank heavens!
DeleteThis is just not the year for peas... I planted 5 or 6 packets of sugar snaps, and they are barely 12 inches tall. And that is probably stretching it a bit. I've come to rely on snap peas as my first or second harvest crop, but this year I think I am just going to pull them out and faggeddabowdit!
ReplyDeleteTiny, you'd think it would be a great year for peas, as cold as it has been. Beans, on the other hand, have been miserable in this weather. Mine just barely break ground and are immediately devoured by insects.
DeleteTiny Gardener, I am experiencing the very same problem. By this time last year I know we were eating peas, the plants seemed to be growing a few inches every day... and this year they are barely a foot tall with no peas in sight.
DeleteOh, how disappointing! I was envious until you said they weren't any good. I can't wait till my few sugar peas develop and hope they are tasty! Sorry for your disappointment! Nancy
ReplyDeleteNancy, I've never grown a sugar snap that wasn't sweet and crisp and tender....until this year! I'm sure yours will be fine :-)
DeleteThat happened to me as well!! I planted sugar snap peas from territorial seeds and they were so stringy!! Practically inedible!
ReplyDeleteLast year my peas hardly germinated. Every year is a mystery!
Shannan, I wonder if Territorial and Ed Hume have the same seed source. Maybe I ended up with last year's bad snap pea seeds.
DeleteSorry to hear about your peas... I don't have any yet and by mid-June of last year, my plants were just about done producing! It is a weird year. Or, more likely, there is just no such thing as a "normal" year!
ReplyDeleteBurvats, at least I'll have shelling peas from them, but I'll sure miss the snap peas for my stir fry meals.
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