Sweet Peas

I tired an experiment with the sweet pea seeds this year. I planted around 100 collected seeds from the pods of Spencer s/peas we grew this summer. We purchased them from a specialist grower just to see how they grew compared with the run of the mill packets you buy and they were only 50p or so dearer than the norm.

I planted half in large plastic pots, chitted, I managed to chit these with Stanley blade without chitting my fingers as well!! The other half I planted in same size pots unchitted, none were soaked overnight as we normally do.

I suppose roughly ¾ have come up and I was surprised there is absolutely no difference between the chatted and unchitted. Bothe lots were planted in late October in unheated greenhouse. Both chitted & unchitted are around 4” tall with the 1st set of leaves opening.

The other sweet pea experiment was seeds from the sugar n spice hanging basket sweet pea we tried this year. I was a bit disappointed in one way as they did not flower as much as I thought. I thought they would be large plants so spaced them accordingly but they looked sparse in the basket.

Again planted around 100, could not chit them as they were too small and no overnight soaking.

Half were planted in those 4” deep (60) cells long root trainers we tried last year and the other half in toilet rolls which was a 1st for us. The cells are growing the best with only about a 1/4 of the toilet roll seeds coming up. I have noticed the soil in toilet rolls seems a lot drier than soil in pots. I expect this could be due to the cardboard soaking up most of the water.

I think what I should of done or should do is fill the bottom of tray with water and wait till the cardboard is fully soaked with water. Normally I do not overwater the seeds in case they rot so still experimenting with the toilet rolls.

I am sure a lot of you have used toilet roll method for growing seeds so any experience to pass on.

Thanks

 

Hi Trogre
I never chit sweet pea seeds , I just soak them overnight in tepid water. For planting out I have tried Root Trainers which are a bit fiddley , cardboard tubes which can get a bit messy ! I now use cheap disposable plastic pint glasses which are nice and deep for the roots , just drill a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage . I plant SPs as advised by Sarah Raven . I sow 3 seeds per pot in early February . I remove the weakest plant when they are established and grow on in the greenhouse. I plant these double sowings out in early April , seems to work well
I do find SP performance can be erratic depending on the weather , and I don't plant them by the 100 as you do . I am trying Charlies Angels in 2015, as highly recommended on here !

 

I just use the baggy method for Sweet Peas.

Same here.

 

I've tried 'no soaking' and soaking with the same results and also thought I'd try experimenting with old Pizza boxes this last year,they make good root trainers

 

You will not grow a better Sweet Pea than Charlies Angels, Had a bit of a job to source seeds this years had to resort to buying a collection mental note save seed !

 

Plenty on Ebay Rosie . I got 50 for £1.45 more than enough for me.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sweet-Pea...arden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item4d13ad457f

 

Thanks for your advice. The beer pint glasses seem a good idea as they are deep. It would be a shame to use something brand new so perhaps best to fill the pint glass with beer first and then recycle

 

Sorry tried to get a smiley after the word recycle and ended up posting half finished message!!!!
Too much beer !!!! I have written down the Charlies Angel sweet Peas for next year as something to try. I only planted a 100 sweet peas as I learnt a couple of years ago when we started to grow flower seeds a valuable lesson.Being green I thought if we need say 50 plants of one kind of flower then plant 50 seeds,big mistake. As you well know not all the seeds geminate so now we plant a lot more seeds than we really need ,just to be safe. The root trainers I tried are the ones below. Very sturdy & strong but for me being fumble fingered a pain to get plant out. Wifey has no problem as she has mastered the art!!

 

The Charlies Angels sweet peas are doing really well . Lots of healthy blooms with a nice perfume. Definitely one for next year as well , another great tip from GC

 

They look wonderful. Def one to try next year.