WeWeed’s horticulturalist John Brannan shares his expert knowledge on growing sweet peas in a three part tutorial!

Part 2: Raising Seedlings.

While we wait for the endless grey and cold to give way to spring proper we need to bide our time and wait for the right moment before we plant out.

I have the luxury of space in a heated glasshouse for this task and the seedlings are now growing rapidly in their Rootrainer modules, so much so that I have already pinched out the tips to encourage more side shoots and to prevent the seedlings growing into a tangled mess.

The ground outside is still very wet and heavy and not at all suitable for cultivation, as working on wet soil does a lot of harm to the soil structure, so best stay off it for now.

The plants have now also been moved into a cold frame outside the glasshouse in order to reduce the temperature and rate of growth and to harden the plants off. Sweet peas are quite cold hardy, but do need this acclimatisation period to ensure the soft new growth produced under heated glass is able to withstand the outside world.

Looks like it will be early to mid -May before we shall be planting out, but don’t worry, seeds and plants do grow much better going into a warmer soil than being set out into a cold wet soil. Same goes for your summer bedding plants we usually wait till the end of May/ early June to avoid the chance of any late spring air frost, which can happen and knowing my luck probably will!

So, we have had to wait longer than expected and we have had to slow the growth down for now, but we look forward to our crop with much anticipation.

Part 2 coming in May!

Need to ask John some questions? Send him a message via his profile!