Tips for Growing ‘Sugar Bon’ Peas

Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon ‘Sugar Bon’

Container gardeners or square foot gardeners, take note: you should add ‘Sugar Bon’ to your vegetable patch.

The self-supporting vines grow just one to two feet tall and produce correspondingly tiny pods that are only three inches long at most. But the yields certainly aren’t small.

That means a big harvest in a tiny package.

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Of course, I wouldn’t sing the praises of a vegetable if it didn’t have more going for it than just a high yield.

‘Sugar Bon’ plants are also heat tolerant and will produce in temperatures above the 65°F that stunts most pea growth.

If you’d like a refresher about how to grow snap peas, check out our guide. Then, come back here and we’ll discuss the specifics of raising ‘Sugar Bon.’

So, without further ado, let’s jump in. Here’s what you can expect:

‘Sugar Bon’ is a dwarf cultivar of the sugar snap pea (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon), part of the edible pod group of peas.

Together they bred the first sugar snap pea, which combined the edible pods of snow peas with the large seeds and straight growth of English peas.

Lamborn continued to breed new sugar snap cultivars, including ‘Sugar Bon,’ which he named after his wife Bonnie.

As an aside, if you’re a big foodie, then you’ve no doubt heard of restaurants like The French Laundry, wd-50, and Saison.

How to Sow

To start, it never hurts to inoculate the garden bed if you haven’t grown legumes there in the past four or five years.

Inoculating the soil with rhizobia bacteria replenishes it and allows the pea plants to fix nitrogen more efficiently.

Legume Inoculant

You can find pea inoculants available at True Leaf Market if you opt to go this route.

Before you inoculate, work some well-rotted compost into the soil. This helps loosen it up while helping the soil retain water as well as adding nutrients.

Starting Seeds

You can start seeds indoors or out. I prefer sowing directly outdoors, especially since these legumes have such a short growing season.

But if your season of temperatures between freezing and 70°F is under 60 days, you might want to start the plants indoors to give yourself a jump start.

If you’re going to start indoors:

1. Fill small pots with potting medium.
2. Poke the seeds an inch deep and soak the medium well.
3. The seeds don’t need light to germinate, so when you see the leaves pop out of the soil, place them somewhere with six hours or more of direct sunlight or under supplemental lights.
4. Keep the medium consistently moist but not waterlogged.

When there are several sets of true leaves and the seedlings are over four inches tall, you can transplant them into the garden after hardening off over the course of about a week.

If you choose to direct sow outdoors, the process is just a little bit easier.

I like to put a little piece of chicken wire over the planting area to protect the seeds from squirrels and jays.

Transplanting

When your seedlings are ready – or you’ve purchased some ‘Sugar Bon’ nursery starts – you’ll need to transplant.

Assuming you’ve inoculated your soil, if that’s something you want to do, all that’s left is to dig a hole about the same size as the growing container.

Gently remove the plant from the container by squeezing the sides gently and pressing the bottom.

Set the plant in the hole and firm the soil up around it. Don’t bury the stems any deeper than they were in the growing container. Water in well.

How to Grow

The hardest part of growing peas is over. Sowing seeds and transplanting the seedlings is the most difficult step in growing ‘Sugar Bon.’

So long as you have a spot with full sun, soil with a pH between 5.5 to 7.5, and you’re able to keep the soil consistently moist, your job is mostly to wait until the pods ripen so you can harvest them.

If your soil pH isn’t right, you can always grow your ‘Sugar Bon’ in a container or raised bed.

If you struggle to keep the soil moist, add an inch or two of straw, grass clippings, or leaf litter over the root area. Keep it an inch away from the stems, to prevent rot.

If you live in an area that experiences surprise heatwaves in the spring or fall, you might want to consider planting somewhere that you can protect the plants during the hottest part of the day.

Keep the soil evenly moist at all times – but not waterlogged.

It should feel like a well-wrung-out sponge. You can still feel the moisture, but it wouldn’t drip if you balled some into your hand and squeezed it.

Keep weeds out of the bed. Not only do they compete for nutrients but they provide shelter for pests and act as hosts to some disease-causing pathogens.

If you’re looking for a pea that you can grow indoors, this is a perfect option. Learn more about indoor pea growing here.

Containers

‘Sugar Bon’ is absolutely tailor-made for growing in containers. The plant stays small enough that a gallon container or larger, so long as it has drainage holes, is all you need.

Fill it with a water retentive potting medium. Something like Tank’s Pro Coco-Soil, available from Arbico Organics, would be ideal.

Tank’s Pro Coco-Soil Potting Mix

It’s made out of organic compost and coco peat for nutrients, water retention, beneficial soil microbes, and good air circulation around the roots.

Otherwise, you can care for the plant as you would if it were growing in the ground. Just keep in mind that the soil in containers tends to dry out quicker than in-ground soil.

Learn more about growing peas in containers here.

Where to Buy

While not as easy to find as ‘Sugar Daddy’ or ‘Oregon Sugar Pod II,’ seeds for this cultivar are generally available at local nurseries and garden centers.

Or you can always buy yours online and have them conveniently delivered to your home.

Managing Pests and Disease

Protect your plants from rabbits and deer if those herbivores tend to be a problem in your region. Fences are the most reliable way to go about it.

Learn how to identify and deal with aphids here.

Leaf miners are typically more of a cosmetic issue. You can learn about these tiny larvae that chew holes in the center of plant leaves in our guide.

Snails and slugs will eat the leaves, too. I struggle every year, particularly in the fall, to keep my pea plants safe. Check out our guide to learn more.

Finally, you might come up against powdery mildew. It’s a common disease, though it’s usually more common in peas grown in fall than those grown in spring.

Harvesting

The pods are ready to harvest in about 55 days. They should feel plump and full, but they shouldn’t be turning pale at all.

Once the pods become pale, they’re overripe and they’ll be tough and bitter.

When you harvest, pinch off the pods or snip them off with scissors.

Not all pods will ripen at the same time, so check the plant every few days to remove any that are ripe.

Don’t forget that you can harvest and eat the tendrils as well.

A Bonnie, Sweet, Sugar Snap Pea

If someone asked me what I’d recommend for growing sugar snap peas in a small space, I’d say ‘Sugar Bon’ with no hesitation.

It’s self-supporting, can tolerate hot temperatures, and produces a big yield.

Are you growing ‘Sugar Bon’ peas? Let us know in the comments section below – and feel free to share your favorite recipes!

And for more information about growing peas in your garden, check out these guides next: