[RookieJim]

I've got some Meteor Peas still in the packet. should I start them off indoors or put them straight into the ground?

Cheers
Jim

[mumofstig]

I'd wait til the soil is warmer and sow direct, much easier 

[RookieJim]

Thanks Mum.

[DD.]

Same here. No faffing with peas!

[simonwatson]

I chit mine like sweetcorn. Put them in a tub with some damp kitchen paper and leave them on a cool windowsill for a few days. Once they have swollen and a small root has started they go in the ground. This gives the mice and other critters less time to dig them up before they get going and means I get fewer gaps in my rows. I only grow a few for the boys to pick at when they're in the garden so really notice if a plant or two don't germinate.

[Daamoot]

I've sown about 40 in toilet roll tubes in the unheated conservatory.  They've started popping through and plant them out in a month or so if the temp rises.  Will sow the rest straight into the ground at the same time.  All my directly sown peas last year were eaten before they got a chance so figuring that some started early and some protection for direct sown ones will help this year.

[Mark's Sussex Allotment]

It really depends if you have problems with mice and pigeons.

I have both, so try to start them off indoors, but then have problems transplanting them as them rarely take for me.

I might try the loo roll trick, but sowing direct is much easier ( if they're not eaten my everything!)

[Willow_Warren]

I was wondering when to start my peas off.

I started them all off indoors last year, but it is quite a pfaff and I plan on growing more this year.  We have a lot of mice and other little things so not sure what to do this year!?  Perhaps some of both - those I have less of I think I will nurture them under cover....

I didn't have many issues with planting out - all seemed to take.  Some were done paper pots, some in module trays, and some in plastic drinking pots.

Hannah

[Nicki85]

I've never grown peas before but bought a few pack to try this year.   After seeing how many were in a pack I have decided to sow them straight out when (if) it warms up- maybe in two weeks time or thereabouts.

[DD.]

Time for a link, I think!

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=50902.0

[flitwickone]

each year i buy a pack of dried peas from T%$Łos for about 30p
dig a trensh ,then lob  them in cover water
and hey presto its pea time

[Ivor Backache]

I use to grow peas direst but because it was hit and miss I used this method. I would prepare the trench about 4" deep and flat bottomed using the spade. Back home I would make trays out of polycarbonate plastic (conservatory roof) about 18" long 4" deep and 9" wide (width of trench) Fix the pieces together with tape. Fill with soil and plant seed as you would in the trench.
No problems with germination and when established, place in the trench. Cut the ends off and run water down the plastic. You should be able to pull out the plastic with one hand whilst holding the soil with a trowel in the other hand. Seedlings fall nicely into trench and then backfill. Two such trays would sit nicely in the boot. Anything bigger becomes very heavy, and difficult to handle.

[DD.]

For me, growing peas other than direct sowing, (except for a few specialty peas), is impossible!

[globetrotter]

I start mine off in metre lengths of guttering in the greenhouse. Fill the guttering with compost, press in about 30 seeds to a length. When they are about 2 to 3 inches high make a shallow drill where they are to go and slide them out of the guttering into the drill, place the pea sticks, cover with a net and job done. I find 5 lengths make a full row. 

[shokkyy]

I always sow mine direct, but last year the mouse population suddenly discovered my peas and ate the whole lot. I sow quite a lot and it's just too much faff to use modules or anything like that, so I had a hunt around the web and discovered a video on Youtube showing how to stop them with 1/4" wire mesh. You just bend it to make a kind of inverted u-shaped tunnel and pop it over the row of peas, weighted down with stones so the edges go right into the soil. It did work, my second sowing germinated just fine and was unmolested by mice or pigeons, both of which I have in plenty.