Gardening Plants & Flowers Vegetables

3 Main Types of Peas for Your Garden

Growing Shelling Peas, Snow Peas, and Snap Peas at Home

peas growing in a garden

​The Spruce / K. Dave

There are three main types of peas that you can grow in your garden: shelling peas, snow peas, and snap peas. While they are used differently in cooking, their growing conditions are very similar. Peas are an annual vegetable and a spring crop that needs cool weather to thrive. If you plant them at the right time, they are easy to grow, and they are even suitable to be grown in containers.

However, if you’ve never grown peas before, selecting which peas to grow might seem difficult given the many choices offered by seed catalogs. The fact that each of the main types of peas goes by multiple names makes the choice all the more confusing. 

Here’s an overview of the three main types of peas to help you decide which peas to grow—you will probably want to grow some of each.

3 Main Types of Peas

  • 01 of 03

    Shelling Peas

    English peas

    The Spruce / K. Dave

    Shelling peas, also called English peas (Pisum sativum ), do not have edible pods; you have to wait until fully plumped up before shelling and eating them. Shelling peas are either hybrids or open-pollinated. They also vary in pod length and days to maturity. Some shelling pea varieties are more resistant to common pea diseases downy mildew, fusarium wilt, and powdery mildew, than others.

    • Sun Exposure: Full to partial sun
    • Soil Needs: Loamy, moist, well-drained
    • Days to Maturity: 50 to 68 days
    • Varieties: 'Green Arrow,' 'Maestro,' 'Lincoln,' 'Tall Telephone'
  • 02 of 03

    Snow Peas

    snow peas

    ​The Spruce / K. Dave

    Snow peas, also called mangetout, sugar peas, or Chinese pea pods, have flat edible pods; the seeds are not allowed to fill out before harvesting. Even though you do not have to wait for the peas inside to plump, snow peas tend to have the longest days to maturity of all the peas. The vines of taller varieties reach 5 to 6 feet in length and require trellising.

    • Sun Exposure: Full to partial sun
    • Soil Needs: Loamy, moist, well-drained
    • Days to Maturity: 60 to 65 days
    • Varieties: 'Golden Sweet,' 'Mammoth Melting Sugar,' 'Oregon Giant,' 'Oregon Sugar Pod'
  • 03 of 03

    Sugar Snap Peas

    sugar snap peas

    ​The Spruce / K. Dave

    Sugar snap peas, also simply called snap peas, are a cross between shelling (English) peas and snow peas. As with shelling peas, the seeds are allowed to plump up a bit. However, the pods are crisp and edible, so they do not need to be shelled and are used in recipes in the same way as snow peas. The name alludes to the snapping sound that the peas should make when they are harvested at the ideal time. The harvest period of the different varieties can be short, long, or very long. Another distinguishing factor between varieties is the vine length.

    • Sun Exposure: Full to partial sun
    • Soil Needs: Loamy, moist, well-drained
    • Days to Maturity: 51 to 64 days
    • Varieties: 'Cascadia,' 'Sugar Ann,' 'Sugar Daddy,,' 'Super Sugar Snap' 
FAQ
  • What is the most common type of pea?

    Shelling peas are the most popular type of peas, which might have to do with their versatility in cooking. Snow peas and sugar peas can also be used in all kinds of dishes, from stir fries to salads, but shelling peas are no doubt more mainstream.

  • How many colors of peas are there?

    Most garden peas are green but some varieties have purple or yellow pods. Field peas are another type of peas that belong to a different genus (Vigna); they come in many more colors, including hues of purple, pink, red, brown, and black-and-white, like the popular black-eyed peas.

  • How many varieties of edible peas are there?

    In addition to the three varieties of green peas (shelling peas, snow peas, and snap peas), there are several other pea varieties, including heirloom peas. Some of them are consumed fresh, others are dried.