sweet peas

Advice please regarding sowing sweet peas

I plan to soak seeds then sow in toilet rolls in greenhouse

What systems do you use for soaking and how long

Rab

 

Rab, I would soak them overnight, and using toilet rolls is a good bit of recycling.

 

How much water is needed, ie do I fill a bowl then let them float?

Rab

 

The last sweet pea packet I bought said that they were not to be soaked. I have tried soaking, not soaking, chipping and not chipping - doesn't really seem to make much of a difference.

However, to answer your question, I don't think it matters how much water you use - if you have a bowl handy, that would do - though I do seem to remember once soaking them overnight on a wet saucer in wettened kitchen roll.

You will bwe surprised how quickly the roots will reach the bottom of the toilet roll tube! I have doubled them up before - but then you do require a deeper hole fro planting out!

All the best!

 

I have 15 packets to sow shortly, my greenhouse bench is wooden slats with 19 gauge weldmesh on top, I plan to put newpaper down and then the tubes for the seeds

Rab

 

I use the wet kitchen towel method to get my sweet peas to sprout as those seeds are as hard as bullets and seem to need a helping hand....it works a treat and once potted on the seedlings grow away quite happily.

I grew my first ever lot of sweetpeas early last year and boy did those plants go crazy.

I have already sown this years seeds (just before Christmas) and the seedlings are doing really well in my cold frame.Hel.xxx.

 

After reading this, I think I will have yet another go at growing sweet peas.

We only ever had one really good year for them, and that was years ago. After that, one half-way decent one, and then nada.

I have planted them straight into the garden, and in different places every time, but with no luck. So this time I will try starting them off early in the Wintergarten in toilet rolls.

Thanks for the tips folks.

 

K-G, sow them in pots in October, grow them cold and pinch them out once they`ve made two sets of leaves.

 

Sorry to be so ignorant, David, but that mean that I should sow the seeds outside in the toilet rolls ? :confused:

 

I took seed heads of my sweet peas last year and put them in cold frame in late oct there are now loads of young plants 6- 9 inch tall I didnt soak mine I just put them straight into seed trays you will find that are really easy to grow

 

Kedi, growing them cold means in a greenhouse or coldframe without heat, but it needs to be frost-free. Toilet roll thingys are perfect.

 

Diolch, David, so I'll put them in the Wintergarten.

 

Kedi, I wish I were a linguist like you, I`ve got Welsh, English AND German in one sentence. :D