sugar snap peas, when do i plant them?

package says plant seed outdoors in march whenever weather allows. since i live in upstate new york there is usually snow on the ground and the ground is frozen. thanks

I usually get mine in about half way through April. I'm in 5b too.
Kathy

kathy - thank you. i will give it a try. have you ever tried starting them from seed indoors? i though i read someplace that peas should b e planted directly into the garden but wondered if i could give it a try from seeds.
frank

Try an experiment, HERBIE43. Take a small number of seeds, say 6, and try starting them indoors then you can compare them against those planted outdoors. If you get the seedlings up and growing and then set them out without disturbing their roots, the plants should do fine. To develop strong roots, start the seeds in newspaper pots, or even better, try this. Use toilet paper rolls. Open each roll by cutting it down the length and then cutting the roll in half for two pots. Close each pot with a small piece of masking tape and set them in a shallow container. Fill with moist potting soil and plant the seeds. If your container has a glass or plastic cover, that's ideal for creating a terrarium effect and stablizing moisture, o/w you might use plastic wrap until the seeds sprout. After the seedlings have a good start and your weather permits, you can set them out by removing the cardboard of the pot and set them in without disturbing the roots. Will it work? I dunno - but it should! Peas prefer the cooler weather so you can them going early.

Howdy, Herbie! I do a gardening club at the Adult Day Care where my office is located. Last year we started all of our peas and beans indoors, and they did awesomely!!! I had never done beans before and wasn't really keen on the idea, but the class voted them in, so we did it! Now I am totally adddicted! They grew fast and furious! It was the first veggie we harvested and they bore fruit until the frost! The snap peas were a little more delicate than the pole beans and wax beans, but they still did very well, and suffered much neglect! All we did was stick a half dozen or so per 4" pot with planting mix, set them in a window, and watered a few times a week!

Good luck!

One more point - a few days before setting the seedlings out, place their container, minus cover, outdoors in the sun for several hours to give the young plants a chance to "harden off" and become more tolerant of outdoor conditions.

Good point, Yuska...we did that,too, and I'm sure it made a difference!

thank you all for you advice. it's not that i'm not new to this. i have been starting my veggies seeds for a long time. have six 4 ft. grow lights and all the rest. usually i start the beans in the ground using the toilet paper rooms from seed but this is my first time trying the snow peas.
yuska - using toilet paper rolls really different. might give it a try.

sequee - glad you had good results with the peas starting them indoors. will experiment with them this season.
thanks again alll
frank

Pea advice from Mike McGrath - give explicit advice on how to get a lot of peas

http://www.whyy.org/91FM/ybyg/peas.html

does anyone know the best variety for freezing? so many decisions

Hey, thanks for the link! That was awesome!

PS I'm especially fond of Hart's Dwarf Gray Sugar