Sweet pea pinching out advice please!!

Hi everyone,

I know I've asked questions about these before but..
The pinching out the tips question, do I just pinch out the very tips or more?? I am so confused :confused:
As I saw a gardening programme last night and she pinched quite a bit out untill the plant just looked really small like about two leaves!!

And I want to plant them out tomorrow will that be too soon?

Many thanks

Stingo

 

I think the programme you saw she was dealing with a plant where several sweet pea seeds had been sown into one pot - as these plants resent root disturbance she wanted to give them the best chance possible so she took them right back. In my experience you can pinch out to around half the plants height and it will be fine. This encourages plenty of side shoots so that the adult plants will be bushy and wide as well as tall. I will be planting mine out in the next few days (even though the plants are only around 2-3 inches tall (after pinching) but I live in the milder south. I will carry on pinching out the growing tips for a while longer yet as this seems to encourage bushiness.

 

it also encourages good strong root growth, which is good news! I've been pinching out the tips every time they grow an extra pair of leaves, and have just started to harden them off. Good luck with yours!

 

mine have gone a bit spindly and straggly as its not been nice enough to put them outside (even though I'm on the south coast) - I have already pinched them out once, so would another pinching out help??? The stems are really thin - not thick like they should be!! :confused:

 

Sounds like mine Honey Bee!!

 

Pinching them out once is really not enough - you need to end up with seven or eight side shoots so that the plants are nice and bushy.

 

ah - ha!!!! perhaps thats why my Sweet Peas are always thin and patheticaaly straggy compared to the neighbour's whose are always bushy and thick and soooooooooooo much better than mine......

hopefully now, I may have some decent ones.....(well, we live in hope..)