Legumes
Mangetout
Pisum sativum var. saccharatum
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Sow outdoorsmid March – mid May
Harvestearly June – mid August
Practical tip
Pick while the pod is still flat — once you can see the peas bulging through, it has gone stringy.
Origin & history
Mangetout peas differ from shelling peas in one single feature: they lack the tough parchment layer in the pod wall, which is why the whole pod stays tender. They have been described in European gardens since the 16th century; the French “mange-tout” — “eat it all” — says exactly that. The fleshy snap types, by contrast, are young: they arrived in 1979 with the American variety “Sugar Snap”.
Varieties
There are two types: flat-podded snow peas, picked while the pod is still flat, and round-podded sugar snaps, which stay crisp and sweet even with fully formed peas inside. For a balcony or a small bed there are varieties around 70 cm; the classic tall ones crop most heavily on two-metre supports. All the common varieties are open-pollinated, so saving your own seed is straightforward.
Care
Mangetout usually grow taller than shelling peas, so the support goes up at sowing time; guide the first tendrils on by hand and after that they hold on themselves. Moderate watering is enough until flowering, but from then on the crop needs even moisture — drought stress at that stage gives short, stringy pods. No feeding, and a mulch layer keeps the root zone cool, which extends the picking season by weeks.
What can go wrong
Tough, stringy pods are almost never a fault of the variety but the result of heat, drought or picking too late. Powdery mildew coats the foliage from July on; sowing early, spacing generously and always watering at the base pushes it back. Birds work over the freshly sown row and the seedlings — twiggy sticks or netting until the plants are about 10 cm tall solves that. As with all peas, leave five to six years before the same bed grows them again.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Hold the vine with your other hand as you pick, or you tear off the whole shoot; go through every two days, because a plant with pods ripening on it stops flowering. Mangetout stay fresh for only a few days; for the freezer blanch them for one to two minutes and cool them in cold water. Pods that have gone past it and filled out are not wasted — shell them and use the peas like ordinary ones.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.