SWEET PEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1939, Page 9

SWEET PEAS

HINTS ON GROWING. -A.laL.bas been written about growing sweet peas. When good advice is followed good blooms have resulted. On the other hand, when the directions have not been carried out to the letter, good flowers have also resulted, so that it does not do to be too dogmatic as regards what should and what should not be done. The main considerations are that the position should be sheltered and protected from heavy winds. Failing this it will necessary to erect some sort of a breakwind; heavy winds do a lot of

harm to the blooms when the plants are in flower, ft is also necessary to have the ground well drained. Wet, sour, waterlogged ground is of no use to try and grow sweet peas in. Preparation of the soil is the most important part of sweet pea growing. In the past some of the methods advocated were very laborious and were perhaps too enthusiastic, and inclined to put people off growing them. It can be truly said that good sweet peas can be grown in any average garden soil for the plant is strong, hardy, and adaptive, but there are different degrees of perfection. One thing is certain, and that is the best sweet peas are Ihe result of the best cultivation under the best conditions of soil and climate.

No amount of feeding will make up for lack of thorough preparation of the soil, feeding with artificial or liquid manures will be of little value if the roots are not able to travel freely in a suitable medium.

The main thing is to have the soil as deeply worked as possible. This can be achieved either by deep digging or by trenching. Just which it should be must be settled on the spot, taking into consideration the circumstances. If time and labour permit of trenching being done, then let it be trenching, but do not give up the idea of growing them because you cannot trench the ground. Work the ground anything up to three feet deep. '

During the process of digging or trenching the manure should be added, and again setting aside the complicated prescriptions advocated by many enthusiasts, use any manure that is at hand; a compost heap that has been treated with super oi’ ammonia or even if it has not, provided it is in a particularly decayed condition, can be used. In addition, use a good sprinkling of bonedust, and if you can get it, plenty of old mortar rubble, or failing that, use ground limestone. Whether you are digging or trenching, do not simply scatter the manure on each layer of soil as it is turned over, but thoroughly mix it with the soil, so that after you have finished with the digging there are no patches which are all manure, and no patches of soil without its correct proportion of manure. In the early days of sweet pea growing a lot of failures were due to the method of placing the manure in layers, with the result that it was not till the second or third digging over that the plants responded to the manures that had been applied. Before leaving the subject of the soil it might be well to mention that the soil must be firm when the seed is sown or the plants put out. If the digging is done early enough, then the rains will consolidate it, but if not then the firming must be done by treading or rolling; loose soil provides no foothold for the roots. Of course, just how much or how little firming has to done depends upon the class of soil we are dealing with. The salmon varieties, some of the reds and the dark blues will require shading in warm weather to get the best results.

F Little protection is required; just enough to break the fierce rays of the sun. When cutting for exhibition the period which must elapse between the cutting of the blooms and the judging must be allowed for. A stem that is at its full when cut is more than likely to shed some of the petals or even some of the flowers by the time it is staged; cut the flowers that, as far as can be estimated will be just right for the time of judging.

Blooms should as a rule be cut the previous evening and at once put in water (not packed too tightly together) and placed in a cool position overnight. They will carry much better after being in water than if cut and sent away immediately. Attention must be paid when 'selecting blooms for the show bench to size of bloom, length of stem, purity of colour, number of flowers on stem and substance of flower, in the order named.