to soon for peas?

[Mrs Ava]

You may have seen on the gallery that Ava has built me a couple of rather splendid cloches which I plan to plonk in position on my plot where I intend to sow my first early peas.  The packet says sow in February.  As I hope the cloches will warm the soil up, and as the plot is well drained and a sun trap, I hope to sow my first row or 2 in about 2 weeks time.  Do you think this is still to early?

[Hugh_Jones]

If they are round seeded peas, you should be quite o.k., although you should keep the cloches over them for a few weeks.  However, if they are wrinkled seeded peas I would personally leave it a bit longer because they are a little less hardy than the round seeded ones. But obviously a lot depends on the weather.

Seed packets often tend to be a little bit optimistic over sowing dates.

[Mrs Ava]

Yup, they are round ones Hugh, and I was figuring on keeping the cloches on until they had germinated.  Of course, the next dilemma is how do I support all of these baby pea seedlings  

[jethro]

You can use willow twigs, but be careful they will sprout roots