7 Tips for Growing Peas Indoors

You can grow peas indoors if you have a room in your house that gets 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight every day. Grow tall vine peas in window boxes, and provide a trellis that will run up the wall to support them. Dwarf pea varieties make ideal container peas. Follow these suggestions for growing peas indoors.

Choose the Variety of Peas to Grow

Snap peas or dwarf peas will grow well indoors all year round. Obtain seeds for your peas from a garden center.

Prepare the Containers and Growing Soil

For snap peas that will grow long vines, use a long, narrow window box. Provide the support in the form of a trellis, or pea netting tied to tall sticks inserted into the container box itself. The support can rest against your sunny window.  Ensure you have 4 vertical feet of support for the peas. Start dwarf peas in medium-sized plastic margarine or ice cream containers with holes punctured in the bottom for water drainage. Use the lid under the container to catch water runoff. Prepare the soil in any pea growing container with potting soil, fortified with 1 cup of rich organic compost including manure and grass cuttings.

Plant the Pea Seeds

In the window box, plant pea seeds 5 cm (2 inches) apart. For a container planting of dwarf peas, plant 8 seeds in a circle in a pot that has a 10 gallon (10 liter) capacity.  Put the seeds for both types about 3/4 inch (2 cm) down in the soil.

Water Pea Plants Lightly to Start

Water pea seeds after planting just enough to dampen the soil. Continue watering sparingly until the stems have flowers in full bloom, and you can see pod structure forming. Then soak the soil well twice a week.

Train the Peas Up the Supports

When the pea seedlings have reached 4 inches tall, begin to train the pea vines around the supports. At 6 inches tall, pinch off the tips so the peas will send out horizontal shoots that will cling to the trellis or wires.

Self-Sustaining Peas

If you want the pea plants to self-fertilize, take the containers outdoors to allow the flowers to be pollinated by bees and other insects. Otherwise treat them as annuals, harvest your peas and let the roots and stems die off. Plant fresh seeds next spring for more peas.

Pick the Peas Daily When Ripe

Once the pods and peas are ripe, pick them every day to encourage more pods and peas to grow. You should be able to pick fresh peas off the vine until late September or early October.

Advantages to Growing Peas Indoors

Among the several advantages of growing peas indoors are that you eliminate the problems of wind damage, insect pests such as slugs, and other plant diseases that can thrive in your garden soil. You can also manage the water intake of the peas precisely, and prevent problems like root rot that can result from overwatering.