SWEET PEA CULTURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 February 1939, Page 2

SWEET PEA CULTURE

LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT. Never is there a season which fully satisfies the sweet pea exhibitor. A cold spell comes, and immediately there are lamentations about the lack of sunshine we should be having. Once the weather becomes warmer again, it is said to be too hot, plants and blooms are being burnt. If it is not heat and cold, it is extreme of wet or dryness that is the trouble. Be the weather what it may, the experienced grower seldom fails to produce something

really worth while, and the present is a season when experience will tell. The effect of fluctuations will be seen on sweet jaeas. There are few plants more easily upset than cordon grown sweet peas, and in most parts of the country, their dislike to the recent wet spell has been demonstrated by the plants dropping their buds. This is a problem which defeats even the most clever growers. Nothing can be done once the buds drop and, until the weather takes a turn for the better, they are likely to continue to drop. One thing must be avoided, and that is saturating the roots with cold water at such a time. This, too, can easily induce bud dropping even in a warm spell. Any water should be stood out of doors for at least 24 hours in order that the chill may be taken oft. It is impossible to give any hard and fast rules for the feeding of sweet peas. Much depends on the strength of the plants and the manner in which the soil was prepared. At all costs avoid overfeeding. Size is a matter of paramount importance for exhibition, but coarseness is a fatal fault. As a rule this is first seen in soft, gross flower stems. If these make an appearance, the supplies of nutriment should immediately be cut down. Those varieties which are likely to burn or bleacl| should be shaded. In these days there are numbers of varieties which are not given to this failing, but it is equally true that the orange and pure salmon shades are indispensable in a collection of several vases. For these a light shading can be rigged in such a way that the plants may be exposed to gentle rains which are sb refreshing to the plants.