Not every single pea plant in a backyard is there to produce food; a few are meant to provide beautiful flowers rather. Sweet peas provide fragrant and attractive flowers in gardens and containers. Sugar snap peas are one type of pea plant that provides a tasty vegetable. The thick but tender pods with immature peas inside add range to vegetable trays and stir-fry dishes. Even though sweet peas and sugar snap peas are relatives, there are vast differences between the 2 types of peas.
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are inedible because the seeds are poisonous. Rather, sweet peas give beautiful blooms for a backyard area. The distinguishing flowers create blossoms in all colors except yellow. Sweet pea plants vary greatly in size; a few consist of extended vines that climb to trellises and poles. The flowers from vine-type sweet pea plants function as cut flowers, and bush sweet pea plants have short stalks and perform well in flowerbeds and containers.
Sugar Snap Peas
Sugar snap peas are a sort of edible-pod peas. They’re picked for consumption once the pods start to fatten up and the seeds are relatively tiny. Usually sugar snap peas are picked around five to eight days after the flowers look; at that point, the pods are plump and crunchy. Sugar snap peas grow on 5- to 6-foot vines or 1- to 2-foot bush-type pea plants.
Similarities
Sweet peas and sugar snap peas require similar growing conditions. Both kinds of plants fall beneath the cool-season plant classification and favor a moist ground. They’re often grown from seed and planted in the spring once the soil reaches a fever of 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually the plants can tolerate light frost and grow as annuals. Peas tend to be planted about a month before the date of the last frost in the spring. They climb well when the temperature is approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit and also become productive in hot weather.
Other kinds of Peas
Besides sweet peas and sugar snap peas, gardeners develop garden peas and snow peas. Garden peas make seeds which are absorbed as peas. If garden pea plants fully mature, the dry peas are called split peas. Snow peas are just another type of peas with edible pods. Snow pea crop occurs when the pods are long and flat and the peas have not developed indoors.