l wouldn't bother trying to start indoors for the simple reason you need so many plants to get a reasonable crop. I don't have your problems with heat but I do warm the soil in advance of sowing. I use strips of clear plastic about 2 feet wide which I pin down tightly over the soil for a couple of weeks before sowing. After sowing I replace the plastic until the peas germinate and the shoots appear. Then I raise the plastic on low wire hoops to about 3 inches so the young plants don't touch it. Lastly I use row cover on higher hoops, about 9 inches high. Then I remove all the protection and let the peas fend for themselves. I only do this for the earliest sowings, February and March. I can sow peas into June in my climate.

Also, the variety of pea will make a difference whether you can get a harvest in before it gets too hot in the spring or too cold in the fall. If you are trying to grow English Shell Peas, a variety that has a fairly quick days to maturity is Strike Pea (from Johnny's). DTM is 47 days. This is the variety that I grew last fall and this spring. It is more bush in growth habit (about 2+ feet tall) and the productivity per sq ft is not ideal compared to vinning peas. This spring I planted my presprouted peas on 3/11 and harvested on 5/7. The DTM was more like 55 days this spring. I did cover them one time when the temps dipped down to 25 degrees F with low hoops. Last fall the DTM was 45 days.

You might want to wait to see how this year's planting does before worrying about next year. You may discover, as many have, that the yield just doesn't justify the space required for them in a home garden.

Dave

Agreed, Dave, but it's pretty much the only vegetable (except corn) all four members of my household will eat!

Then buy them a couple bags of frozen peas for a couple of $ and that will give you at least 3x more peas then can be grown in the average home garden and you can use all that space for other things. ;-)

Of course if you are planting 1/2 an acre or so that's a different story.

Dave

Does the family like mangetout peas? You get a bigger crop with them because you are eating the pods as well.

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK: that's brilliant! I accidentally did something similar this year: I put down clear plastic in an attempt to heat up the soil and kill weed seeds.

Instead I made a lovely greenhouse and they grew like gangbusters. Oh well, it made them easier to find and remove! I'm saving this tip for next year.

I am having pretty good luck starting my snap peas indoors. I put them in 6 cell trays. They sprout quickly and the key is timing- they only need 2-3 weeks from planing seeds to putting outside. Wait any longer and they outgrow the cells quickly!

I do short sugar snap vines. I grew Sugar Ann and Sugar Sprint I think this year. They have edible pods and grow about two feet. I put them in Earthboxes, after sprouting seeds in damp paper towels inside, in early March. Sometimes I use little one inch pots as well. I don't get a huge amount, but enough for just me, and I don't mind the real estate and effort in the spring. Fortunately we've had a cool spring so far, as it is often triple digits here by now. I then pull them out for summer stuff.