Growing Sweet Peas Indoors | Super Guide to Get you Growing
About the Author: Jeremy Starke
I've been growing vegetables since I was 12 — over 30 years in the dirt. I share what actually works in my own Zone 6b garden, and what I wish someone had told me when I started.
Zone 6b · North Carolina · Gardening since age 12Have you ever wanted to grow sweet peas indoors to help you get a jump start on your crop? Its the late winter and you are just itching to get your sweet pea plants out there since they are one of the earliest crops you can plant.
You might also just want to grow them indoors year-round and need to know if it is possible.
Are you able to grow sweet peas indoors? You most certainly can grow sweet peas indoors following the steps outlined here. Keep in mind these methods also work with other varieties of peas.
We will explore 2 different reasons to grow them indoors:
- You want to get a jump start on planting your sweet peas outdoors
- You want to grow sweet peas entirely indoors
The actual steps & materials are the same for both reasons to grow sweet peas indoors.
Materials to grow Sweet Peas Indoors
- Potting Soil – start with sterile soil medium as it will be free of any harmful microbes and bacteria. Seedlings are very sensitive when they first germinate.
- Container – You can use a 5-gallon bucket or similar sized container
- Lighting – You can use regular shop lights with 40-watt fluorescent bulbs to help encourage growth
- Inoculate (optional) – Helps peas get started, but is not necessary if you supplement with some nitrogen in the beginning
Steps to grow Sweet Peas Indoors:
- Fill the container with potting soil.
- Sow one sweet pea seed in the potting soil at a depth of about 1/2 inch
- Water and place sweet pea seed in a warm area to encourage germination
- Provide adequate lighting once sweet pea plant has sprouted
- Ensure that the sweet pea plant has a trellis to properly grow
Check out our in-depth guide here for more on growing peas in a container.
Early Sweet Pea Crop for your Outdoor Garden
You will learn how to start your sweet peas indoors and get them out into your garden earlier. You can plant your peas in a five-gallon container or any other container.
It is January/February in our area, so the ground is just too cold and frozen to even put sweet peas in the ground, but you can grow them in a container.
One of the things you want to keep in mind with sweet peas is they are frost tolerant, which means it can handle cold temps (30-35 degrees) just for night or frost, but they can’t really stay frozen.
The nights are below 30 they’re not going to survive out there, but you can start them inside.
Typically, you can think of pea plants as the St Patrick’s day crop.
You can put the sweet peas in a bucket and move the bucket in and out of the house to get peas earlier than planting them in the ground. You can eventually move them outside as the season progresses or the ground is no longer frozen.
Sweet peas also run into issues when you plant them in the ground that’s too cold or soggy when you’re getting a lot of rain for a week. Those seeds will germinate, but then they usually mold and die.
So this method is a way to really get peas started into a five-gallon container and out into your garden.
1. Fill up a standard seed flat with your soil – Use the standard flat, fill it up, press a good press down about, you’re not really going to go an inch but almost a half an inch.
2. Dropping one sweet pea seed into the seed flat. – Make sure they’re down about a half an inch and then just cover them with dirt.
Watering & other guidelines for your Indoor Pea Plants
Make sure that you are watering them on a regular basis. Sweet pea plants require moderate water until the flowers appear, then you can lower the amounts. You want to give them enough water to ensure the soil is moist, but not soggy.
Sweet Pea plants don’t like extremely wet conditions. Your indoor temperatures are more regulated than outdoors, so it will be easier to maintain the proper amounts.
One other concern that you need to be aware of is the trellis that you use. It needs to support the weight of the plant as it matures. Keep this in mind if you need to move your plant. The sweet pea plants stems can be delicate as they are hollow.
Moving them around with the added weight can cause them to break. Trust me we learned the hard way!
Check out our mega insider secret guide to growing peas here if you want more in-depth information on growing peas. Let us know in the comments below what types of sweet peas you are growing or any other questions you want to be answered.
Take a look at this video if you want to see this step by step:
Meet Jeremy Starke
I've been growing vegetables since I was 12 — over 30 years in the dirt. I share what actually works in my own Zone 6b garden, and what I wish someone had told me when I started.
Zone 6b · North Carolina · Gardening since age 12 Read My Story →Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly do sweet peas grow?
Sweet peas typically can be harvested in about 10 weeks from the germination period. Factors such as lighting, soil nutrition, and watering can alter this if not optimal.
How often do you water sweet peas?
Sweet Peas need about 1/2 inch of water per week. Just don’t drench them too much. Once the pods start forming, you can increase it to about 3/4 to 1 inch of water per week.
