How to Start Sweet Pea Seeds

Sweet peas, also known as "The Queen of Annuals," are highly ornamental flowers consisting of red, lavender, pink, and white flowers. These flowering plants offer an abundance of color to your yard or garden, many of them containing multiple-colored petals. For a longer period of enjoyment throughout the summer months, you certainly want to start your sweet pea plants indoors to offer them a "head start."

Things You'll Need

• Sweet pea seeds, three per pot
• Small 2 inch peat pots, your desired quantity
• Potting soil, regular
• Fingernail clippers
• Water

Instructions

1. Nick the outer shell coating of each seed using a pair of fingernail clippers. Apply only enough pressure to crack or pierce the outer coating of the seed to facilitate a more rapid germination process. Soak the seeds in water overnight in lukewarm water.

2. Fill each 2-inch peat pot, to the top, with regular potting soil. Sow three seeds in each 2 inch peat pot, poking the seeds down into the potting mix to a depth of about one inch, and cover. Tamp the top layer of potting mix with a finger until just firm, without packing down too tightly. Water until the peat pot is damp, but not waterlogged, and set in a cool dark place for about 10 to 12 days.

3. Visit your peat pots after 10 days and observe closely to see if shoots have emerged above the soil. When the seedlings have emerged, transfer the seedling pots to a well-lit or sunny area with temperatures between 40 degrees and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Maintain the temperature within this 15-degree range to prevent the need of a long hardening process when transplanting outdoors.

4. Provide an additional week or two for the seedlings to produce their first two leaves. When each has these first two leaves, thin the plants down leaving only one plant per peat pot.

5. Transplant your sweet pea plants as soon as the soil outdoors is workable and heavy frosts are over for the season. These plants enjoy a sunny location with partial shade during the hottest portion of the day, if possible to arrange. Otherwise, they will do fine in a sunny location only, though the blooms may be delayed by up to two weeks when the weather becomes hot.

Tips & Warnings

• You may alternately use regular pots, filling them with non-soil potting mix composed of peat moss, humus and compost if desired. Peat pots are most convenient when transplanting, however.

• Add a good medium-grade fertilizer to your transplant site when transplanting your sweet pea plant. Mix according to the package instructions, which are more than adequate to your plant safety.

References

• Flower Gardening Made Easy: Growing Sweet Peas
• Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas: Sweet Peas from Seed
• Xomba: Germinating Sweet Pea Flowers Indoors