Sweet pea · Brooklyn, New York, United States
When to sow sweet peas in Brooklyn
Main outdoor window
15 Feb - 8 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In Brooklyn, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 May - 5 Jun
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Brooklyn
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
18 Jan - 8 Feb
Ten weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
10-31 Jul
Counting back 124 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
15 Feb - 8 Mar
Six weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
1-22 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
16 May - 5 Jun
Sweet peas through the year
Against the frost risk in Brooklyn
Why these dates
Sow in autumn and overwinter in a cold frame in zone 6 and warmer, or start ten weeks before last frost. Pinch at four true leaves.
Young plants take -8C and benefit from the cold. This is a flower where autumn sowing genuinely doubles the season.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Sweet peas are timed from 10 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Brooklyn.
The median frost-free season here is 249 days, against 90 to 110 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Growing sweet peas in Brooklyn
When should I plant sweet peas in Brooklyn?
Aim for 15 Feb - 8 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Feb - 18 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will sweet peas be ready to harvest in Brooklyn?
Expect to start picking around 16 May - 5 Jun, based on 90 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will sweet peas tolerate?
Young plants take -8C and benefit from the cold. This is a flower where autumn sowing genuinely doubles the season.