Updated on September 7, 2026. Ratings below are university lists, not a fence. Confirm the linked extension pages before you tear out a row — or before you plant peas as a “sacrifice” crop.
Yes. Deer eat garden peas — shoots, tendrils, leaves, flowers, and the pods. Iowa State’s fruit-and-vegetable list, compiled from Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys and last reviewed July 2022, puts pea (Pisum sativum) in the frequently severely damaged column with beans, lettuce, carrots, strawberries, and sweet corn. UConn files peas with the deer favorites. Oklahoma State’s landscape sheet puts them in the severely damaged garden group. An unfenced spring row is a salad bar at muzzle height, in the weeks Minnesota Extension says fat reserves are lowest.
This page is the garden-pea answer. Shade-bed candy is hostas. The other cool-season favorite on the same Iowa list is carrots. Berry patches sit there too: strawberries. Rest of the yard: deer-proof garden hub and what deer eat.
| Plant | Garden pea (Pisum sativum). English / shelling, snow, and sugar snap are the same species. Bush types ~19–30 in; Rutgers commercial list: Super Sugar Snap 60 in / 61 days. Cool-season annual. Direct-sow only (Rutgers FS787). |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Yes. Frequently severely damaged. Treat an unfenced pea row like an unfenced hosta bed. |
| University rating | Iowa State: frequently severely damaged (Rutgers / Cornell / Michigan State; July 2022). UConn: deer favorite. Oklahoma State: severely damaged garden plant. |
| What they eat, when | Shoots and tendrils first, then foliage, flowers, pods. Peak is the cool-season window: March–June in the Northeast and Midwest, January–April in the Deep South, plus a fall sowing where heat allows. Raids match deer feeding times. |
| Where it is worst | Unfenced suburban kitchen gardens next to woods. Same plant in a food plot is planted for the herd. |
| Official sheets | Iowa State deer list · UConn vegetable list · Rutgers FS129 · NDA winter pea profile |
Three plants that share the word “pea”
Catalogs use one word for three plants. Only one is this crop.
- Garden peas (Pisum sativum). Rutgers FS681 shelling types: Green Arrow, Knight, Lincoln, Progress No. 9. Snow: Oregon Sugar Pod #2. Snaps: Sugar Ann, Super Sugar Snap. UGA treats English, snow, and snap as the same cool-season crop with different pods. Deer do not split them. Mild foliage, no thorns, no onion smell.
- Austrian winter pea (still Pisum sativum). National Deer Association: cool-season annual, 2–4 feet, crude protein in leaves and stems typically over 25 percent. Hunters plant it on purpose. In high-density Tennessee work cited there, nearly 100 percent of the stand was eaten. Alabama Extension broadcasts 40 pounds per acre September 1–November 1, inoculant group C. A backyard row is that forage without the acre.
- Ornamental sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus). Different genus. UGA Circular 985 files it with annuals deer rarely browse. Do not read that tag onto ‘Lincoln’ or Super Sugar Snap.
Southern peas — cowpeas, crowder, black-eyed (Vigna unguiculata) — are a warm-season crop in a different genus. UGA Bulletin 577 even splits the fertilizer table: English peas medium feeders, Southern peas light. Iowa’s frequently-damaged list is Pisum, not Vigna.
What they eat, and when
Peas are a cool-season annual. Rutgers FS129 sows them March–April in New Jersey, two inches apart, 18 inches between rows, about 3 pounds of pods per 10 feet. The Mid-Atlantic commercial book plants processing peas February 25–April 30. UGA Bulletin 577 is earlier: January until March, one pound of seed per 100 feet, one inch deep. Minnesota: spring damage spikes when fat reserves are lowest. A pea shoot is often the first mild green in a bed the herd already walks.
Emerging stems and curly tendrils go first. Then leaves, flowers, pods. Super Sugar Snap is 60 inches; Knight, a shelling type, is 19 inches at the same 61 days. Height changes the cage. It does not change palatability. Rutgers FS787: peas belong in the ground, not a windowsill transplant. There is no indoor head start that puts the crop above a deer.
Deer have no upper incisors. They grab and tear — ragged petioles, missing tips, flattened vines, split-heart prints, pellets. Minnesota calls that browse rough or shredded. A clean 45-degree clip an inch off the soil is a rabbit. Peas are annuals. Unlike a hosta crown, there is no next-year comeback if the stem is gone before it pods.
The second window is fall. Food-plot winter peas are that window on purpose: NDA says plant September–October in the South, August in the North, or April for a spring/summer stand. A 20-foot garden row is not a 10-acre plot. It will not last the week if a doe already knows the yard.
Deer vs rabbit vs bird vs mildew
- Deer. Ragged tears two to five feet up a trellis, vines yanked, pods swallowed, hoof prints. Overnight, around dawn and dusk. White-tailed deer in the East; mule deer hit the same mild greens in Western yards.
- Rabbit. Penn State: a clean 45-degree clip, usually within 2.5 feet of the ground. Tomatoes and cucumbers tend to be skipped; peas are not. Hardware cloth at the soil line stops rabbits, not a deer. Low-crop defense: how to keep rabbits out of the garden.
- Birds. Pecked pods, intact vines. Netting sized for birds also stops deer if the hoop is closed.
- Powdery mildew. Rutgers FS1124. White film on intact leaves, no tracks. Knight, Green Arrow, and Super Sugar Snap carry PM notes on the Rutgers commercial list. That is not a fence problem.
Clean low cuts and no hoof prints: stop blaming the herd. A mowed row and an empty trellis: deer, the same overnight strip you see on hostas.
Where it is worst
Suburban and farm-edge kitchen gardens from northern New Jersey through Pennsylvania, New York, southern New England, Ohio, Michigan, and the Upper Midwest. Rutgers’ published landscape list is ornamental; the pea rating gardeners use is Iowa State’s fruit-and-vegetable compile. In Georgia the crop is a winter-into-spring planting, still the hungry window. Minnesota: in farm country, crops can make up as much as 78 percent of a deer’s diet. A backyard pea row is that idea at garden scale.
The next row is often the magnet. Iowa’s frequently-damaged vegetables include lettuce, beans, sweet corn, and carrots. Plant those beside unprotected peas and you have trained the herd to stand in the bed. Tomatoes in the same garden are seldom damaged. Cucumbers sit in rarely damaged. Apples keep them coming after the vines brown. Pumpkins take October. Pest context: deer as pests.
What actually works
Bush peas are short. You can cage a 19-inch ‘Knight’ row instead of fencing the county — if the cage is closed on top. Super Sugar Snap still needs height.
- A hoop or hardware-cloth lid over a bush row. Floating row cover on hoops, or a 1/2-inch hardware-cloth box tight to the soil, from seeding through last pick. Minnesota’s Central Region trials used 16-foot cattle panels about 50 inches high as a home-garden micro-exclosure. Enough for bush types. Not enough for a 60-inch snap.
- A real garden fence. Penn State’s conventional barrier is 8-foot woven wire, tight to the ground. Cornell IPM: a 4-foot fence can work on a small, fully enclosed kitchen garden; a large plot needs eight feet. A 4-foot picket around an open bed is a step. Deer clear that without thinking — Minnesota puts the jump at 12 feet. Layout: how to keep deer out of garden beds. Cost: how to keep deer from eating plants.
- Electric polytape on a larger plot. Cornell’s vegetable program uses a single-strand electric fence baited with peanut-butter foil tabs. Farmers: how farmers keep deer away.
- Put the bed next to the house. Minnesota: plants deer want belong in high-traffic spots, not against the woodlot.
- Food-safe repellents only, on foliage you are not about to eat. Penn State: ammonium-soap products such as Hinder are among the few labeled for edibles. Delay, not a fence. Formulas: which organic deer repellents actually work.
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What does not work
- A “deer-resistant pea” tag. No university list splits Knight, Lincoln, Oregon Sugar Pod, or Super Sugar Snap that way. Rutgers recommends those cultivars for Fusarium and powdery mildew, not deer.
- A sacrificial pea row to draw them off the flowers. That trains the herd to your yard. They then hit the hostas. Cornell’s bean buffer strips are a farm tactic. NDA tells hunters not to plant winter peas in a pure stand; a 20-foot garden row is a pure stand.
- Planting Austrian winter peas “for the deer” next to the kitchen garden. You have advertised the address. Food plots belong in a field, mixed, and large enough to take the browse.
- Egg spray on pods you will eat, Irish Spring, hair, dryer sheets. UGA calls soap, hair, and dung unreliable. A cage has no pre-harvest interval.
- Hand-feeding leftover peas. Minnesota: do not feed deer. Why: what to feed backyard deer.
Grow these instead — or beside
- Tomatoes — Iowa State: seldom damaged. They occupy a later slot, so they are not a calendar substitute for a March sowing.
- Cucumbers — Iowa and UConn: rarely damaged, coarse prickly vines. Better neighbor than beans.
- Lavender — sun-edge herb deer skip for scent. It does not replace a colander of snaps. It does replace the strip that funnels the herd into the bed.
UConn’s rarely-damaged list also names peppers, onions, garlic, and eggplant. We do not have plant pages for those yet — use the UConn sheet, not a WorldDeer URL. Flower swap: peonies and the perennial list. Annual color: deer-resistant annuals.
Common questions
Will pea plants grow back after deer eat them?
Sometimes this season, never as a perennial. If laterals and the growing tip still stand, a vine can flower. Snipped at the soil line, that plant is done. Re-sow under cover. There is no crown waiting underground the way there is on a hosta.
Do deer eat sugar snaps and snow peas, or only English peas?
All of them. Iowa rates Pisum sativum, not a market class. A flat snow-pea pod is easier to strip in one bite. A fat snap is the same meal with more sugar. Cage both.
Are ornamental sweet peas safer?
Safer as a flower, not as a vegetable. UGA Circular 985 lists Lathyrus odoratus among annuals deer rarely browse. That plant is not edible the way a garden pea is, and it is not a substitute for ‘Lincoln’. Do not skip the fence on a mixed trellis that also holds snaps.
Can I spray deer repellent on peas I will eat?
Only if the label says you can, and only on the parts it names. Cornell: most deer sprays are not labeled for edibles. A cage has no pre-harvest interval. Keep spray off filling pods and wash what you pick.
Sources
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of Plants to Deer Damage (pea: frequently severely damaged; Rutgers / Cornell / Michigan State; July 2022)
- UConn — Deer Resistant Vegetables and Herbs (peas: deer favorite)
- Oklahoma State — Controlling Deer Damage (peas: severely damaged)
- Rutgers FS129 — Planning a Vegetable Garden (March–April; 2 in. spacing; ~3 lb / 10 ft)
- Rutgers FS681 — New Jersey home varieties
- Rutgers FS787 — Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors (peas: always direct-seed)
- Mid-Atlantic Commercial Vegetable Recommendations — Peas (Feb. 25–April 30; Super Sugar Snap 60 in.; Knight 19 in.)
- UGA Bulletin 577 — Home Gardening (English vs Southern peas; Jan.–March)
- UGA Circular 985 (sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus: rarely browsed)
- National Deer Association — Austrian Winter Peas (Basinger; protein, overbrowse, inoculant C)
- Alabama Extension — Cool-Season Food Plots (40 lb/acre, Sept. 1–Nov. 1, group C)
- Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage
- Penn State — Cottontail Rabbits
- Penn State — White-tailed Deer in Home Fruit Plantings
- Cornell Vegetable Program — Minimizing Deer Damage in Vegetable Crops
- Cornell IPM — Deer
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance
Part of the Deer-Proof Garden Guide. Wild diet lives on what do deer eat.
