ANNUALS > genus Lathyrus > SOWING
IN THIS templet
LATHYRUS GUIDES
SowingSupport
Sweet peas are popular annual efflorescence and are often plant in a cut flower garden .
As nitrogen - fixate plant , they can also be beneficial as associate plants in a kitchen garden .
These arecottage gardenfavourites , with a delightful visual appeal and perfume .
Fortunately , if you desire some in your own garden , they are very easy plants to grow from seeded player .
scented peas can be sown either in spring or fall , and the cognitive operation is very simple :
When To Sow
“ The best piece of advice I have for sweet pea plant neophyte is to verify that they come out sugared peas at the correct prison term of yr , ” pronounce Georgina , the owner of the specialist plant life nursery , Sweet Pea Gardens .
“ Sweet peas are hardy yearbook , so they care to get startle in coolheaded temperatures .
“ Some people even start them in the autumn so that they can winter them in a stale material body or unheated nursery . ”
As Georgina mention , you could sow sweet pea source in fountain or autumn .
If you sow in spring , the plants will be aim out the same year , but if you sow in in autumn , you will require to have somewhere frost - free that they can overwinter before being placed out into the garden the following spring .
1) Prepare The Growing Area
“ Trying to germinate source directly in the earth is too tantalizing for maraud birds and mice who just roll in the hay to eat a fresh sweetened pea plant seed , ” excuse Georgina .
Instead , sweet peas can be sow into a range of different container .
“ Even in my nursery on bench , mice love to eat my sweet pea seeds , go out perfect seeded player - sizing holes where they thankfully extract them , ” Master Horticulturist Colin Skelly adds .
“ To get around this , I cover muckle with fine metallic element meshing until they have germinated . ”
You might select to sow your seminal fluid into seed trays before potting them up into their own containers .
you could commence them in soil blocks , in toilet gyre tubes or in other biodegradable pots , and you could constitute up to 3 seeds in 9 cm green goddess .
I care to start sweet peas in toilet roll tubes since these plants tend to do well if they are placed in long , thin containers so their roots grow deep and narrowly .
Also , when you plant in toilet cast tubes , you do not require to sting them out but can simply rent them grow and then plant them out into your garden as is .
I have also grown sweet peas in seed trays with an amazing success pace :
2) Sow The Seeds
Some people suggest steps like snick the seeds ( avoid the eye ) or soaking and sprouting seeds prior to sowing .
However , I do not bother as I tend to get good sprouting rates with sweet peas without any additional steps , which one of our expert also agrees with .
“ New seed have soft casing so do not need to be soaked or chipped before sowing , ” says Carole Tate from the National Sweet Pea Society .
I simply localise the come around 1 cm late into the tubes , covering them with my growing culture medium and firming the soil gently into place .
3) Prick Out & Pot On
I keep my sweet peas on a sunny windowsill indoors until they germinate , then move the seedling into my polytunnel .
Your next steps will , of course , look on which containers you have choose and where you have sown your seed .
Prick out and pot on seedlings as required , Georgina says , but just check that they are large enough to handle .
“ sweetened pea plant are hungry and thirsty plant , so make certain that you add muckle of compost to the field where they are to be institute , ” she explains .
“ After , add some piss to keep the soil moist but not drenched . ”
4) Plant Out
Once the sweet peas get around 10 cm marvellous , pinch out the growing tips to further the plant to bush out .
Harden off your plants to step by step acclimatize them to out-of-door growing shape , then place them into their final originate positions in your garden once all peril of frost has passed in your arena .
