'crashed' cold frame

hi all
the week before last following the advice on here I planted some sweet pea seeds. some were from plants from earlier this year, some from new packet.

i was concerned cos i only had a plastic 'greenhouse' so i did some indoors too.

anyway we got the greenhouse up, i spent the Friday afternoon doing all that. i put label in too cos i don't have a memory :D the 'greenhouse' was against a fence one side, a wall another side & we put the garden bin on the third.

last monday morning we were looking out at the garden saying how well the seed were doing etc. we turned around & then heard a crash. we both looked at each other, said 'what was that', opened the back door and there was the greenhouse on the ground.

somehow the wind, which we didn't think particularly strong, must have got underneath & toppled it. so there was all the compost etc all over the ground. my husband went out & shoveled the dirt back in to the trays etc but we thought we'd lost the seeds.

i planted some more this past week thinking all the previous ones were gone, but...... i have sprouts all over! the indoor ones are going mad too.

how good is that! of course i don't know now whether the peas are the new (blue) ones or the old ones but i don't care. i'm just so pleased there are some coming up. they must be quite hardy little things really.

there is one little thing though, and it's about the ones in the house. they seem to be shooting up but look to me (amateur don't forget) to seem 'leggy' i think is the expression. i can't remember how they grew earlier this year so can anyone tell me if it looks like they're going to be abit rubbish. or maybe they're just going to be big! there aren't any leaves on them only the one at the top and they're about 1 1/2 inches now.

growing them now, when should i put them outside? will they flower really early?

cheers

sandra

 

It might be etiolation, not enough light perhaps, this can cause leggy specimens at that stage of growth.

 

Sandra sorry to hear about your crashing experience I dare bet you were right peed off when that happened...I know I would have been!

Sweetpeas are tough cookies once you get them sown of course, some people even sow them straight into the flowering position when they collect the seed but I haven't tried that.

If your sweetpeas haven't a second set of leaves yet you shouldn't pinch them out yet, wait for the second set and do so then.

The ones I grew on our window ledge this year I kept pinching out the growth something crazy and they still became really strong plants!
Helen.xxx.

 

The problem with growing on a windowsill at this time of year is the days are too short and there's too little sunlight. In the past I've had seedlings go 'leggy' when I've sown them too soon but once I've got them planted out they just seem to sort themselves out and get on with growing.

 

thanks all, for your replies.
the shoots are now really big. cos i haven't seen your replies until now, i haven't pinched out. now there are two sets of leaves!
shall i pinch the top ones? what do you do, just literally pinch them off?
i can't believe i'm like this over some flowers :D it's blooming great.
cheers
sandra

 

Hi Sandra yes just pinch the top pair of leaves off the plants although remember not to remove the bottom set, seems heartless at first but needs must and all!
Helen.xxx.

 

hi Helen,
cos they're going mad, i've now got 3 sets of leaves on some.
shall i go back to bottom set or second ones!
sorry to be a pain.
cheers
sandra