Hello! Please be gentle and keep in mind that I have never successfully grown peas before, so this is all new to me. I planted a bunch of peas earlier this year. Along the Perpetual Pea-ce mix, GtG’s soup pea mix, and the various named varieties I had on hand, I mixed them all up and then planted them. Soooo, my question is, how do I tell whether a pea plant is meant for snow peas, snap peas, shelling peas, or soup peas?
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Taste a pea at various stages of maturity and see if you like the flavor/texture. There isn’t a way to tell earlier (although purple flowers are a likely tip-off for purple pods).
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I should add, given your location: peas prefer cool weather, and will tolerate some frost. They aren’t fans of hot weather. Also, some peas have more resistance than others to powdery mildew. In a humid climate, don’t be surprised if some plants are overtaken before they are otherwise “done.” Save seeds from the resistant ones.
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@APUCommunityGarden Yeah, I’ve been surprised, they seemed to have taken off with the increased heat (or maybe due to the increased watering with the weather). Some started blooming a couple/few? weeks ago and just noticed some pods today! One plant looks like it’s growing snow peas (very wide, flat pods) and the other looks like snap/shelling/soup? (more narrow, plump pods) but I just realized it could just be that one is earlier than the other. I’m worried that they will give out before I get to both taste test AND save seed!
My fall/winter garden was a total fail, so I’m paranoid everything is going to die again even though everything is doing ages better.
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in agriculture, the learning curve often comes with a large number of failures. This is normal.
I am growing peas for the second year. last year was gorgeous. but this year I lost all of my autumn sowing to slugs , and have less than 50% seedlings compared to what I sowed in spring. That’s OK . I will still get something at the end, that will be one step further adapted to my soil, practice, climate.
Keep up !
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A few years ago, I read a post that said something like this: “The secret to my green thumb? 90% of everything I plant dies. I just keep on planting more.” That really spoke to me. 
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My enthusiasm tends to grow and wane at times–so I was definitely accidentally using the STUN method lol. I fell in love with landrace gardening instantly.
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There really isn’t any way to tell from the dry peas what type they are.
And there is not much you can tell from the foliage, except that commercial field peas, usually grown for dry peas, are dwarf and have a semi-leafless (hyper-tendril) growth form - although some breeders (like me ) have crossed this trait into snow peas - but you are probably unlikely to have these.
getting this trait into tall peas could be useful to reduce leaf area and therefore increase air flow, reducing disease susceptibility.
Peas have a very low outcrossing rate, so bulk planting hoping for random crosses is unlikely to yield much in the way of hybrids. I have been meaning to go back to the wild forms that are available and have another look to see if i can get some insect-moderated crosses, rather than doing manual hand crosses.
There are two genes that confer resistance to powdery mildew, the best results come if you stack both these genes together. If i recall correctly, the plants still get a bit infected, but they just keep powering along.
Most peas will have tender pods when they are very young, so you need to let the pods size up a bit before taste testing for fibre.
There are two genes that reduce fibre in the pods. Real snowpeas will have both of these genes. Anecdotally, we suspect there might be genes that delay fibre production, so a pea with only one fibre reduction gene plus a delay gene will still be tender, we think.
sugarsnaps usually have the ‘crowder’ trait, blocky seeds that push up against each other in the pod, creating a square or cylindrical shaped pea.
You can test for low fibre at the dry pod stage by crushing the pods in your hand - low fibre pods will grind to dust and flakes with the two strings remaining.
Good luck.
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I typically grow sugar snaps and snow peas together, different varieties and on trellis. One has a flat pod and tge other is plump, but I enjoy eating tender pods. You will have alot if sorting if planted alltogether if your eating them, marking plants with a bit of yarn or ribbon would help you distinguish between the types as they grow. I like the shelling peas grown with the types used for dry peas in soups together. Its just because of why they are harvested and steamed or cooked.
I did have snap peas cross since I observed two different colored peas inside the same dried pod.
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I planted them all together because the Perpetual Pea-ce Mix is already a mixture of all different types, and I didn’t want to stress about keeping track of which plant is which variety. I also happened to run across a listing for the Perpetual Pea-ce seeds the other day and it turns out that they were specifically bred to thrive well into the heat of the summer, which might explain why they are suddenly doing so well with the turn of the weather (though the more frequent watering can’t hurt).
Some seem to obviously be snow or snap based on their growing–one plant started growing pods first and the seeds still have barely grown, while other plants just barely started growing pods and they’re already practically full. They have been so sweet!! I’m so glad I’ve finally been able to grow peas after so many failures. They are way better than store bought!
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Wow! You’ve convinced me that I’d like to get some of those pea seeds, too. Peas that are happy to keep producing late into the heat of the summer would be great for me.