There is Still Time to Sow Sweet Peas

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Growing Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are beautifully fragrant and come in a range of colours for you to enjoy all summer long. They love the sun so they should be grown in a sunny position with well-draining but moisture-retentive soil.  Sweet peas will brighten up your beds and borders including your vegetable garden where the flowers attract bees and other pollinators. You can also get more compact varieties that can be grown in pots and hanging baskets.

The time to sow sweet pea seeds is between November and March, sown in January they will flower in late mid to late May and if sown in March they will be flowering in September.

To sow sweet peas you need root trainers or you can save your cardboard tubes from toilet paper which are biodegradable so you can plant them directly in the ground. Alternatively, you can directly sow in the ground in April and May but early sowing gives them the edge over those sown in spring.

They are large round seeds which makes them easier to handle, sow two seeds per cell, dotting them on the top of the compost pressing them down to about one and a half inches deep and cover with compost, now water and label.

When the seedlings are 10cm tall and at the stage where they have three leaves, carefully pinch out the tip which makes a strong stocky sweet pea as the energy goes into root formation and encourages bushy growth.

Prepare your soil by adding lots of manure which is a great feed but also helps the soil to retain water. Plant out the seedlings in the mild spell between March and May once the ground has warmed up, alternatively, you can begin direct sowing into the ground in April and May.

Sweet peas are hungry plants so as the flower buds appear, feed the plants regularly with a high potash fertiliser such as tomato food. It is also important to pinch out the tendrils regularly as they consume a lot of the plant's energy so this encourages more flowers to form.

You need to provide a framework such as obelisks or canes for the tendrils to climb up and cling to and as they grow it is important to tie in your sweet peas so that the growth tips are straight and long otherwise they will turn to the light which can affect the length of the stem when used as cut flowers.

 Sweet peas are often used in cutting gardens, the more you pick the flowers, the more they'll grow so you will have a constant supply indoors!  Deadheading also encourages more flower buds to form.

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 Explore Our Sweet Pea Seeds

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Grow Tubes Ideal for starting sweet pea seeds, beans, leeks and other tap-rooted plants as the extra depth gives plants minimum disturbance and encourages strong and vigorous root growth.  These are made of biodegradable materials which slowly break down in the ground so you can plant the whole tube into the ground when the roots begin to grow through the base.

 

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Slug Prevention Protect your sweet peas from pesky slugs by using Strulch!  A light and easy-to-use garden mulch made from wheat straw for perfect for organic gardening.  It reduces weed growth by up to 95% whilst also retaining moisture around plants and enriching the soil structure over time as it decomposes.  Strulch has a neutral pH and is suitable for ornamental plants and vegetable plots with the bonus of preventing damage as it deters slugs and snails.