planting peas in NYC?

[arksnay]

Hello, all. I live in New York City and need to know if it's too early to plant peas in the ground here. I have seeds for sugar snaps and two varieties of snow peas and would love to get them in this afternoon. It's a beautiful day and I'm feeling motivated, but I believe our official frost-free date isn't until mid-April. Should I do it, or should

Comments

[squid_ink]

peas like the cold. I'm in NW Connecticut and I normally would start them this week.. only I still have snow in my garden.

I'll probably get them in next week.

If you can work the soil, you can plant the peas :)

[frankenbury]

Why not plant them- seeds are cheap and you could plant them in batches: one now, one in a couple of weeks.

[mands_leanan]

If you can work the soil, stick them in the ground. I'll be planting mine in another week, and I'm one zone above you in Albany.

[fractalspackle]

I'm in NJ, and would probably plant them next weekend, except I'll be out of town. So I''ll wait another week. I guess I disagree with some of the other posters. Plant a week later and they'll catch up, but plant a week earlier and you run the risk of a real hard frost killing your tender young seedlings.

Technically the last frost date for my area (near Trenton) isn't until April 15th, FYI. Not sure about NYC.

[stoney321]

Eeesh. I would wait a bit. Or start them INDOORS, then transplant in about two weeks. You still could get bad weather, and then you'll lose all that time and effort.

A fast way to get seeds spouting is to moisten a paper towel, put the seeds on that, wrap it up (gently) and slip it in a plastic bag. Put that on top of your fridge (the heat they looove) and in about 24 - 26 hours, they'll be sprouting. Put those gently in some potting mix for seedlings, let them have some nice sunshine, and in a week or two, check the weather. If you're in the clear, plant! Otherwise, you let them grow inside under protection before transplanting.