Cheap(ish!) Sweet Peass

My local garden centre has Sweet pea seedlings in pots - about 4" high.

£2.49 per pot, and I got over 20 seedlings per pot (I counted them and choose the pots with the most!)

They are some spivvy varieties, and as such the seed from Unwins is more expensive at £2.99 for 20 seeds than the plants!

I recommend checking the bottom of the pot and choosing ones with the least root showing, otherwise it will be a nightmare separating them out.

 

A good buy Kristen, I need to get some more sweetpeas as the seeds I planted in pots have hardly appeared...

 

Ye,s I "couldn't afford not to have some" too ... I mean, what's only another 70 sweet pea plants !!

 

It is cheap when you take into account the additional costs of compost, seed cells etc. The only real problem is when you want a particular sweetpea.

 

"I sometimes wonder if its worth the faff of growing everything from seed when there are bargains like this around."

Problem, if indeed that is the right word, I have is relying on the Garden Centre to get the plants I want.

I reckon they are grown under lights indoors (I could be wrong, they may be on staging in greenhouses). The plants are stocky, and "just right". Much better than the ones I grow!

Last year I didn't raise any from seed (too busy with other things), went to the Garden Centre, and they had an amazing selection of really nice Spencer types - single colour named varieties. Perfect!

I grew some bog-standard cheapies from seed last Autumn. I didn't care for them particularly well, and lost about half during the winter. I bought some rather more selective seed varieties in the Srping and sowed those - but that was at a busy time, and I suppose I only get about 75% "up". The Autumn sown ones were planted out very late, and don't look brill (but they will improve I expect).

Anyways, long-story-short, the Garden centre have had rubbish Sweet pea varieties ... boring mixed colour unknown varieties; and then all of a sudden they have got in the same, Spencer types, that they had last year.

Its hit-and-miss too. They have had Tomato plants in, they leave them outside, within a few days they are knackered through cold. If I had known when they were coming, and got them "that day" and put them in the warm it would have been far easier than sowing, pricking out, nurturing - the ideal growing conditions on the nurseries would have raised better starter plants than I can do.

I had a quick look online, not that encouraging. The plants were much more expensive (named varieties best I could find was about 40p each, plug plants were over a pound each !!!), seeds were in the region of 10p each

I also looked at bulk-seed, but if my calculations were correct they were no cheaper, even at 100-1,000 seeds

 

The Barton Grange near me are pretty good for things like that, they have the inddors part and the outdoors and then the sort of halfway house-under a glass roof and the doors and windows are closed at night.

I suppose it's one of those things with seeds-for some reason this type of plant just won't do anything for me (impatiens are still only tiny seedlings the lazy so and sos) and yet I have hundreds of sweetpeas. Just a quick plug here for seed bank and parcel thread-most of mine came from there so paid only for the posting on to the next person-that's a bargain.

 

I used to stay at the Barton Grange for our xams party! Loved going in the garden centre.

I've grown from seed some sweet peas from alan romans, its my first time growing them.

I think only 50% have come up, not sure if ive done something wrong?

Guess i will only have to make one wigwam now!

 

"I think only 50% have come up, not sure if ive done something wrong?"

I soak the seed overnight, then put them between two sheets of damp kitchen paper until the sprout, and I then pot each successful one into a pot. I still lose some after that ...

 

On a slightly different note, I've sowed too many sweetpeas this year and haven't the room to grow them all. I'd love to have a few on the patio though. Could I grow them in a foot deep pot, in full sun? Or is that not deep enough?

 

Can you fit a trough on the patio, rather than a pot? I think that would give them more root run.

Deeper obviously better ... and maybe put some well rotted manure / compost, or similar, in the bottom like a trench-for-beans?

 

Pot only I'm afraid. I've planted them up in the pot with some well rotted chicken "manure" as suggested. Anything is better than chucking them. Thanks

 

a few sweet peas should be okay in a pot be sure to make sure they dont dry out .
if you want a specific variety you have to go to specialist the a bit more expensive but worth it . also start the seed of in the autumn and if you can keep in a cold frame when potted on, next years plants will be far better and can be planted out earlier.

google eagle sweet peas they are specialist.

good luck rpdiy:gnthb: