Sweet pea · Renca, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile
When to sow sweet peas in Renca
Main outdoor window
3-24 Aug
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 September
In Renca, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1-21 Nov
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 Renca
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
6-27 Jul
Ten weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
12 Jan - 2 Feb
Counting back 124 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
3-24 Aug
Six weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
17 Aug - 7 Sep
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
1-21 Nov
Sweet peas through the year
Against the frost risk in Renca
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 Renca.
The median frost-free season here is 265 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 Renca
When should I plant sweet peas in Renca?
Aim for 3-24 Aug in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 24 Aug - 14 Sep - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will sweet peas be ready to harvest in Renca?
Expect to start picking around 1-21 Nov, 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.