Sweet pea fail

I know you're supposed to grow sweet peas in root trainers, but I didn't have any (and was too tight to buy some), so I thought I'd try a deep mushroom container.

I filled it with compost, plenty of holes in the bottom. But it was not successful. I managed to get a single seedling about 4 inches tall - but nothing else. I've finally given up hope that anything else will germinate and potted on the single brave seedling that emerged.

I have some others in more traditional seed dividers, so I hope they'll be more successful, because i love sweet peas.

 

I just potted some up myself today. Using old toilet paper rolls set in a tray, filled with compost, sowed the seed and watered on.....hopefully soon I'll have sweet peas and my own bio degradable pots!! I used small peat pots last year to germinate my sweet peas, so I thought I'd try my own this year.

Hope you manage to get yours going.

 

There are various schools of thought, but I ignore the ones that disagree with my method!

I soak my seed for 24 hours, and then put in a ramekin lined with kitchen paper (folder double/triple to fit), which I wet - I drain off all excess water that will drain off, but its definitely more wet than moist. However, it is also important that the seeds get some air - so I loosely push the top of the kitchen paper down onto the seeds - thus the seeds are sat on wet paper, but their tops are only loosely in contact with kitchen paper, if at all, and their sides are in contact with air (sorry for the detail, but it is important that the seeds are not drowning in water). I then cover the pot with cling film which keeps the air very humid.

If nothing else this enables me to only plant up the seeds that germinate and are viable.

Having said that, my local Wyevale has little pots of sweet pea seedlings around this time of the year. There are 10 - 20 seedlings per pot, and they work out cheaper than actually buying the seed - and that's assuming that you got 100% germination! Trouble is, whilst they do have some snazzy varieties, its still pot luck and you can;t rely on them having the Right Ones each year (unless you just want "mixed colours", which being fussy I do not! I want a vase of flowers on the outdoor table of a particularly colour, and similarly the vases in the house - some throwback of OCD I expect!) but they are a good fall-back if you have not had a good season for germination. I actually count the seedlings-per-pot and buy the ones with the most! and then divide them up and pot them on individually. So if you can find some pots-of-seedlings locally that might enable you to get a quorum of plants?

 

Ah. I did not soak my seeds. I now remember reading that on the packet. ooops. That might account for it.

I might look into the plants if this next lot don't work!

 

Definitely "schools of thought" on that. many say "no need to soak the seed" ... but I do

 

Hi Rachel. Sorry about your sweet peas.
I've never had a problem getting them to germinate.
I soak the seeds overnight and plant them in deep pots and up they come.
I just put the pots outside - I don't think they want too much temperature for germination. For some plants too high a temperature spoils the germination.
Do try again, you have plenty of time. Good luck.

 

I don't buy seed, I sow saved seeds every year (unless I get a new variety to try very cheap).

Nor do I soak seeds, quite the reverse probably, because I sow them in cell trays partially filled with seed compost, then with a layer of sand beneath and another sprinkling on top of the seeds before filling over them with more seed compost. and I keep them in the warmest part (top shelf) of the greenhouse until they've germinated.

Ever since I've been doing it this way I've had vitually 100% germination every year.