[DD.]

That's cutting, not nipping! 

[Yorkie]

Surely it's snipping 

[Paul Plots]

You could use your front teeth and that'd be nibbling 

NB - That was not a serious suggestion 

[Kleftiwallah]

I bought a pack of sweet peas from a specialist nursery (bird of prey - naffin' big beak).  About 50% came up so I went to my seed drawer and dug out my saved seeds at least 5 years old and over 90% of those are pushing up.

The reason for nipping out the tip (I believe -or IMO, whichever you prefer) is that sweet peas make better growth from side shoots which are forced to grow by 'nipping' out the "growing point".   Cheers,   Tony.

[sion01]

Aunt Sally Aunt Sally.Rampant Weasel said 'pulling ends off' in his post. :ohmy:Bad

[barbarella]

I didn't have much success with my autumn sown sweet peas last year, but the year before they were fantastic and I had the first cut flowers on my allotments.  Of course, they were the first to go over too, so probably the best thing is to sow some in the autumn and then repeat sow in the spring for the longest cutting season.  I know someone who sows them up until late June and gets a good crop.