Kim

They do grow quickly, so I've never heard of anyone who seriously tried to start peas inside. But then people will do anything if it's doable!

What you CAN do to hasten the crop a little is put the seeds between moistened paper towels and keep them in baggies in a relatively warm place, not hot (maybe a room in the 60s), until they germinate, which will be more quickly than if you planted them outside in the cold.

You'd need to know when to do this so you can plant the germinated seeds immediately after they germinate, so have your trenches ready and your trellis up if they require one! The ground should be workable, not frozen a couple of inches down when you make a trench.

I sow all my peas indoors and transplant. It is quite common practice for us and many gardeners do it. For several reasons: Early start means early harvest without pea moths causing maggotty peas. Early start means longer growing time in areas where hot weather comes early as you say. Early start and early harvest means the ground can be used for another crop later in the year.

Peas sown outdoors here in Britain either rot or more frequently get stolen by mice and other rodents, so come up very patchy. Some gardeners put prickly vegetation in the drill to protect the seeds, but my solution is to transplant. Transplanted peas can be put in the soil a little lower, so the seedpea, which is still attached, is out of reach of rodents.

So yes, there are good reasons why some gardeners in some areas benefit from starting peas indoors and then transplant although it is much more work.

You Grow Girl has 2 seed starting charts. The one that has how many weeks to start peas early suggests 3-4 weeks before transplant.

version 1 http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seeds_veg.php
version 2 click on 'Handy Seed Starting Chart' under Seeds and Propagation heading http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/