Sweet or Snow Peas?

January 21, 2018 8:58 AM

Are these snow pea sprouts or sweet pea sprouts?

I planted a bunch of seeds last Fall including sweet peas and snow peas. I made the mistake of starting the two kinds of peas next to each other and then the labels fell off. I'm fairly certain these are from the snow pea side of the flat but knowing that snow peas are edible and sweet peas are decidedly not, I'd like to be sure. I was planning on giving these sprouts to some friends since I ended up with way more than I can use myself but if I tell them they're edible snow peas and they're not, well, that wouldn't be great.

posted by otherwordlyglow to Science & Nature (3 answers total)

You'll know once they grow. The snow peas will have boring flowers and appetizing fruit. And the sweet pea will have fragrant, beautiful flowers and forgettable fruit. Tell them they might be one or the other. No one's really going to eat sweet peas by mistake.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:59 AM on January 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

1) Pea and bean sprouts taste like the vegetable they turn into. 2) Sweet peas are poisonous. Don't eat these! 3) You may be able to tell the difference by crushing the sprouts and seeing what they smell like. If they smell like green peas, I'd think they're snow peas. If they smell bitter-ish or something less than pea-like, I'd guess sweet peas.

This is, of course, a bit of an experiment, but it's what I'd do.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:12 PM on January 21, 2018

Best answer: Those look like snow peas to me. Sweet peas tend to have more pointed leaves, and those are rounder. Sweet peas also have squarer stems than those.
posted by mollywas at 10:25 PM on January 21, 2018