Sweet pea · Freiburg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
When to sow sweet peas in Freiburg
Main outdoor window
19 Mar - 9 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
30 April
In Freiburg, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
17 Jun - 7 Jul
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 Freiburg
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
19 Feb - 12 Mar
Ten weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
19 Mar - 9 Apr
Six weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
2-23 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
17 Jun - 7 Jul
Sweet peas through the year
Against the frost risk in Freiburg
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 Freiburg.
The median frost-free season here is 173 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 Freiburg
When should I plant sweet peas in Freiburg?
Aim for 19 Mar - 9 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 1-22 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will sweet peas be ready to harvest in Freiburg?
Expect to start picking around 17 Jun - 7 Jul, 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.