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Produce => Non Edible Plants => Topic started by: becky0129 on March 28, 2009, 18:56:13
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When do you put your sweet peas out mine are about 6inchs now
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They can go out now, if they are hardened off Becky... we will wait a couple of weeks as we have just pinched them out and want to see reasonable side shoots first.. :)
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ok cheers how do you pinch out side shoots first year of growing these
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I never bother about pinching them out (stopping) but if I did I would take the growing tip between thumb and forefinger and nip it off with my nails just above the next set of leaves.
Some info here that might help; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Sweet%20Pea/Sweet%20Peas.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Sweet%20Pea/Sweet%20Peas.htm)
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Thanks for replys will put in ground maybe next week or week after
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No need to pinch out sweet peas.
You can if you want to. But don't think that just because you are not sure what to do, you will fail.
If in doubt,
leave it out.
So long as there is no herbicide in the ground from infected manure, they should do well.
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It is now nearly a month since I planted my sweet peas so I can now start to select the stringest growth and tie them to the canes. They have come through a few hard frosts since I planted them but no damage.
(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1188/1001630f.th.jpg) (http://img18.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1001630f.jpg)
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I grew sweet pea for the first time last year and they soon became 'top heavy'. I planted them 12" apart, tied them to canes and left them to it. I ended up with a mass of foliage and it was very difficult to see the flowers. Should I have reduced the number of side stems to reduce bushiness? TG's site says remove the tendrils but not the excess stems?? Confused ???
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I keep just the strongest shoot unless it is a very vigorous variety then I leave two. You remove the tendrils so that they do not get round the stems and give you Bent stems. They make very little to the flowers, I used to grow for show but now just grow to give away, we do not like flowers indoors but they are always accepted as a raffle prize when I am giving a talk.
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quick question..whats the ideal planting distance?
I got some from garden centre today ,plan to harden of for a week or so then grow up the side of my garden fence.
This was a pack of 12 cells could(as im a tight git)i split them down and transplant into peat pots to double my monies worth??
Regards.
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Sorry Terrier that I haven't got round to easing your confusion so here goes; and when I am at it I will try and answer SteveB's query.
The essence of the exercise is; Do you want masses of big flowers with 3+ florets on each stem?
If the answer is yes then you have to remove the tendrils as they appear, as these take up 'plant energy' which otherwise would be used to produce large stems.
The same applies if you allow more than one stem to grow i.e. the root system has to cope with potentially double the flowers.
Obviously if you remove the tendrils you will have to tie the stems in manually with sweet pea rings, twist ties or wind them around a suspended vertical string.
In Steves case because he is a tight git ::) [his words ;D] he could set his plants around a foot apart, tip them out to promote more than one stem and tie in these additional stems effectively 6" apart thus giving a mass effect.
OK he will get plenty of flowers but he will rarely have any with more than three florets per stem.
Hope that answers the question/s BTW Steve I'm only kidding I'm sure your not that bad ;)
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Cheers teegee,,,i am
It was the way i was brought up parents of the victorian age.......never throw it away it may come in handy.
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Exhibitors who won the Daily mail cup in London for 12 vases with 18 stems to a vase (if I remember right) used to leave two shoots on strong growing varieties to even them up with the slower ones otherwise it is difficult when you come to layering them but they still got 4 or 5 florets per stem.You just need to prepare the trench well. We leave a part of the tendrils on if we are showing as it is used in staging to reverse the front leaf on the vase top.
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I Plant one either side of each cane 8" apart. I only have one strong shoot on each plant (but I leave one side shoot in reserve at the top of the plant just in case they go blind. As they sometimes do. I disbud until they throw 4 buds. I like good quality flowers on the Spencer varieties. I do grow old fashioned one and these I leave to their own devices except for picking off the seed pods
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Well done.....now im totally confused !!Surely they need the tendrils to climb?when you talk about pinching side shoots is that like you do with tomatoes?
confused.com@sweetpeas.uk
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Well done.....now im totally confused !!
you and me both ??? :-\
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mine are planted in black buckits and outside, don't pinch out nothin' ;D
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That's the kind of advice I like. Chuck them in and let them grow.
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I do much the same. All I do is pick off the dead flowers.
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Ok if you take the tendrils off you will have to tie the plants in ! If you are not going to be showing them i would just take a few tendrils off so that you dont have to tie in, this will make life easier and by removing a few the plant will save some energy.
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Surely they need the tendrils to climb?
Let me take you back to what I wrote previously;
Obviously if you remove the tendrils you will have to tie the stems in manually with sweet pea rings, twist ties or wind them around a suspended vertical string.
Lets see if I can clarify it a bit better;
The following picture is not ideal for explaining it but it is the best I have;
(http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Sweet%20Pea/04.JPG)
At the bottom of the picture note the end of a tendril that has been cut off, to the right of it is a tendril that I missed.
Note the green sweet pea ring (higher up) that is holding the stem back to the cane.
I hope this calarifies the situation better.
Sorry I didn't have a better picture example. Obviously when I took the picture I was photographing the flower not the mechanics of supporting sweet pes ;)
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There is no law to say you MUST do anything in gardening, we all do things our own way.I want the best flowers and straight stems even though I give the flowers away. That means I remove the tendrils to stop them bending the stems, I don't believe it makes any difference to the flowers as there is so little substance to them, and tie twice a week to 8 ft canes, but this is only my way.
You can put seeds in let them go on pea-sticks and get many more flowers but not the quality.
We can only say what we do not what you should do.
As the song says "I did it my way".
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"I did it my way".
I totally agree Laurie.
I was taught if you find a way of growing things that suits you carry on with this method until you find a better way.
Obviously to find a better way you have to try other ways!
To do this; I don't put all my eggs in the one basket i.e. I just try a few plants using the new method and compare.
Then in future years I continue with the method I find best!
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24 th April sweetpeas making good progress expect to start picking in about 3 weeks most years we pick first good bunch Chelsea flower show week. I like to tie just under leave stem to allow for upward growth. I layer when they are about five feet high.
(http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/7387/1001785.jpg) (http://img365.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1001785.jpg)
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Nice looking plants Laurie. Mine are only half that size.I sowed them in November instead of the usual October. I can't believe the difference that a month has made. We have booked the hols for November this year so all should be back to normal next year.
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yay, got first flower on one of my sweet pea plants.
Only have 6 outside though.
i really need to transplant the smaller ones i have.
Still dont get this training lark with them and may just leave them to it up the fence i think.
i just hope the slugs stay away from them. i grew them in kitchen rolls and i think maybe this year the collar has given them some protection from nasty slugs.
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:( we cannot win them all, everything seemed to be going so well sweetpeas on schedule for first picking , then a week of cold rain and gale force wind and we end up with bud drop. They will get over it but it will delay full blooming for a week or so. The first picture is the dead buds resulting from bud-drop, the second one shows the next lot of buds waiting to open :(
(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7468/1001851.th.jpg) (http://img34.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1001851.jpg)(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4162/1001852.th.jpg) (http://img34.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1001852.jpg)
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The sweetpeas have now got to the top of the canes so need layering but as there are some good bloooms I am going to enter a few in a local flower show on Saturday. It must be about 12 years since I last showed sweetpeas so heres hoping I get it right.
(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/7248/sweetpea1.th.jpg) (http://img197.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sweetpea1.jpg)
(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4964/sweetpeas.th.jpg) (http://img188.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sweetpeas.jpg)