Jump starting sugar snap peas?

January 26 has to be pea planting time here in the cold high desert. The reason? Pea plants need 65 days to mature plus a month or so to enjoy the harvest. That all has to happen before mid-May when daily temperatures dramatically exceed 80 degrees. So working backwards, plant plant on January 26 to get peas by April 1. March 1 is too late (no peas last year).
Soil temperature yesterday was 50F. This morning after the temperature dropped below 20F, the soil temperature is 42F. Looking for 45F minimum, I’m covering the soil with brown paper grocery bags and burlap to raise the soil temp during the sunny day and insulate that temp over night. I'll weigh down the covers with some black rocks to absorb extra heat.
With two more days to prepare for planting, does anyone have suggestions to increase the possibilities for spring peas in the desert?

Germinate the peas inside, them plant them out when they've got just the tiniest bit of a sprout starting. Once they've germinated they'll keep growing, even if it's a bit colder than is ideal. They might grow quite slowly for a while, though.

One crazy way I've heard of people growing early peas is to take a piece of rain gutter, put it in a better space for early growing, fill it with soil and plant your peas.  Perhaps in a greenhouse, perhaps indoors, etc.

Then once they're growing and the weather is a bit better outside, dig a gutter shaped trench in the garden.  Carry the gutter of peas and soil out there and slide the contents into the trench, removing the gutter.

It's basically like transplanting 100 peas in one long pot.  Not sure if it would work in reality but it seemed interesting.  If I did it, I'd put a narrow long strip of burlap at the bottom of the gutter so I could help "pull" out the length of soil in one piece without it chunking into bits.

Great idea Jan; thank you!
I'll sprout them before planting, just barely, by soaking and draining for the next day or so.

Thanks Mike!
No gutters here but I do have a 300' roll of burlap for wrapping tree trunks that would work as a liner for the trench. Maybe putting the barely sprouted seeds on that and rounding up the mulch would insulate from the cold ground? I can remove the mound in a few weeks and surround the seedlings.

If I remember correctly, they don't like having their roots disturbed. I imagine that at least partially explains the gutter method Mike described. Sounds interesting. Though I have seen in the past couple of years some being sold with the other plant starts. There have been several plants that traditionally have not been started early that I have seen lately. I suspect they may be aimed at newer gardeners.

I agree Jordan, that's where I think that idea came from too.  Plus the tedium of transplanting enough pea plants to get a reasonable harvest.

I've always been told squash don't like being transplanted but in my climate I get double the yield by starting them early and transplanting when they have a couple leaves on them.

This is more work, but I generally use a form and make 3 inch tall paper pots which I put 3 pea seeds in each. Peas are groupies and they actually like to be planted in little groups like that according to reading I've done. I have a paper pot maker, but I've also just used a piece of pipe.

That said, I've also got one type of coffee sack which is quite stiff, and I made tree tubes that are just over 7 inches tall ( even more room for roots ). I sewed the side up with a strand of the sacking and used a scrap of cotton to make a bottom to them. Personally, that would be overkill for peas - I personally don't freak out about a bit of paper in my garden, but, yes, paper can sometimes have questionable chemicals used on it. With peas being a nitrogen fixer, I figure they're happy with some carbon to work with.

Big point - with a 3 inch pot where I just plant the whole pot and let the roots grow through, I don't get transplant shock and I can let them grow several sets of leaves. Considering that I have heavy slug/snail pressure, I need them big to survive.

Thanks for the seedling pots idea Jay. That will certainly work for someone jump-starting early pea planting who reads this thread.
In my race to get the peas in the ground in 2 days, I'm going with the trenches. As of 11am with sunny sky, soil temperature was back up to 45F without the paper or burlap. As Jan suggested, I put the seeds in a sprouting jars and put it in a 50F dark room. I pulled all the remaining beets in the 12' bed and trenched 3 rows, a foot apart that could accommodate the 4" wide burlap roll. The total planting area is 36 linear feet. The burlap cover is 40" wide by 10 yds (30') which means I could fold it in half for a double thick 15' top blanket and skip the brown paper (or line the trench with that). I sifted about 3 cubic feet of composted horse manure and sand to top the barely sprouted seeds in a couple of days. I'm on my way to collect black stones to hold down the blanket.
Keep those ideas coming for all of us early planters!

How about working on the other end of your problem?  Maybe putting up some partial shade for the peas in late April?

Shade by April will be very important indeed Mike! The trellis is pup-tent-style (double A-frame) using 10, 6' bamboo with 2' of chicken wire at the bottom then strings coming from the wire, over the top and zig-zagging up and down side to side from front to back. The trenches run E and W to maximize S sun. I'm planning on replacing the peas with climbing cucumbers in May when the peas wither. Maybe some white Agribon over the pup-tent would help extend pea season. Any other suggestions? The wind is pretty fierce in spring.

Maybe pound some sticks in the ground to the south of it and wattle weave some horizontal branches between them to cast a dapple shadow?

Or have twice as long an A frame trellis and plant the peas on both sides (double peas!!!) and then start the cucumbers as early as possible on the South side so they take over the south peas early and cast shade for the ones on the north side.  The north peas would be growing towards the sun instead of perpendicular to it so they might last longer anyway.

Thanks for the reminder!! Saw this thread and starting soaking my peas immediately.

Mike Haasl wrote:Carry the gutter of peas and soil out there and slide the contents into the trench, removing the gutter.

HAHA Mike that's awesome. Now I have to try this, just to see if I can :D

Hill up a row of soil them cover with a 3 foot wide sheet of clear plastic along the row. The plastic allows the sun to heat the dark soil and works like a green house. It is far superior to using black plastic. Cut in holes for your sprouted seeds or plants.

Welcome to the Forums, Russ. The clear plastic might work with the extreme temperature swings (30 degrees or more!) here in the high desert, and certainly many other places that have more even temp's. The purpose of the temporary black landscape fabric is to absorb the sunlight and warm the soil to 45F. The black fabric will stay on the ground with a daily check to see if seedlings begin to break through the soil; at that time the black fabric comes off for good. The soil temp is swinging from 35F to 45F without the black cover but the cold spell is nearly over.
As an update on this particular high desert project, Jan’s suggestion to germinate the peas (rather than just soaking them over night according to word of mouth learning) has inspired me to go further along in the seed germination process before planting. Yes, root disturbance is a no-no, however, can we push the seed planting stage beyond an over night soak? Hopefully, germination in a jar will wake the peas up inside where temperatures are more consistent.
As a helpful tool to describe the process, I'm borrowing a lovely pea germination photo series created by Noahjgagne, posted on Wikipedia

Following the picture numbers:
Picture I happened after 24 hr soak plus 24 hours, rinsed and drained in jar at 50 degrees.
Picture II is what yesterday’s peas looked like: a barely perceptible white root bulge not yet detached from the pea seed after 3 days at 50F.
Today, 4 days into germination, the tails have detached as in picture III. Given that beans don’t respond well to root disturbance, I planted at stage III rather than disturbing the more developed root at stage IV.
Daytime high desert temps are in the 50s (F) and February nights will be in the low thirties which is acceptable for the young plants without any plastic.
I’ll keep the soil moist and update this thread when (if) the shoots break through the soil....

Today is February 28 and the peas are breaking through the soil! January 28 was the day that I put them into the ground after letting the tails grow a little longer in the sprouting jar. The fabric came off 2 weeks ago when the weather warmed up and I covered the ground only when the temperature went below 28 degrees. I also put dark river stones at the edge of the rows and these 4-6" rounded stones may have held the soil moisture as well as captured the sun's heat by day and retained the warmth at night.
I am so happy!