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please help
denise butcher
Posts: 133
oh I hope someone can help, I love sweetpeas and every year they fail, so this year I read up on them and took expert advice, planted them out in pots, manure well rotted, garden soil mixed with compost, only a few to a pot...watered...looked good...1 week later they are wilting, yellowing and the leaves looking poorly....WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG, I planted them out after hardening off well, they have been out 1 week!!
how do you post this?????? omg
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Posts
The most likely reason is that they've been short of nutrients until now, over protected, and are struggling to get established in the new rich conditions. They need good drainage too, so be careful that you haven't got them in a medium that's too heavy and solid. Plants need air round the roots to thrive.
Were they sown this spring or last autumn? If autumn sown, were they potted on or pinched out before going out, or just planted ?
They don't need cossetting - they're hardy. If they've been protected too much, you make them weaker and less able to cope. Mine are always spring sown, around four to six inches in height - good sturdy plants. All have been outside for well over a month (Scotland) some planted out a couple of weeks ago, and the remainder will be planted in their final positions this weekend. If they germinate slowly, they're tougher. Too much heat makes them a bit leggy, and you'd need to do more pinching out. If you sow in autumn, you need to do that a lot more.
Try sowing a bit later - outside - in April, or in a cold frame or cold greenhouse in March. Ordinary compost in small pots, then plant out the whole thing when they're a decent size. When they're small, they only need a bit of protection from rough, wet and windy weather - just a sheltered spot though, not in a greenhouse
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Do you mean that they are still in pots? I sow mine in October or February and germinate them indoors in ordinary compost - nothing added. The moment they appear they go out into an unheated greenhouse and then a cold frame. In early Spring I dig a trench about 12 inches deep and put a 4 inch layer of composted horse muck in the bottom, then I put back the soil. In late March or early April they go out into this prepared ground.
Sweet peas can be grown in containers but they do better in soil if you are not used to growing them. Either way, they need water when the weather is dry but resent drowning. Strong cold wind is bad news, too. When you do plant them out you need to be careful of the roots which are long and break easily. I hope yours recover but if not you could still buy some ready to go out and see how they do,
Mine are rarely grown in the soil Posy - it's not really suitable here as it's usually too wet and heavy for young plants to go out in at this time of year.
I think Denise means she's planted out in pots as their final position. They're quite straightforward in pots as long as the size, medium and location are all suitable
Have you any photos Denise?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
They are in big pots which I hoped to leave them in to grow as I am limited elsewhere to put them in the ground...I think Ive overwatered them, I shall buy some more today and try again x
Well, we are a long distance from each other, Fairy. My soil is wet clay and I have built up the bed above ground level to help. However, it soon dries in Spring and I suppose that makes the difference. I have grown sweet peas in pots but they grew to about 10 feet and were very tangled and top heavy. Do you put the pots against a frame to support the plants? My wig wam approach was useless!
No - tall canes Posy. I wind string round those, to create a bit of a structure, and tie in as they grow until they get to about three feet - then they're on their own!
We're on clay too, but it takes a while to warm up, and we therefore have a shorter season of growth, so they wouldn't get to that height in a summer, although they carry on flowering until October and occasionally longer as the frosts and colder weather don't bother them. It's only when we get a longer spell of heftier frosts, or the stormy weather we get at that time of year, that they succumb.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...