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Sweet Pea

 Just been out pinching out the growing tip buds of the sweet peas. No more damping off thank heavens. After the second leaf I take out the growing tip to encourage two good buds lower down to grow. You get much better flowers from these side shoots than you get if you let the leader grow on.

I am going to grow cordon sweet peas this year. I do not have enough canes to grow them up although they are probably the best things to use. I am going to set up the rows in a similar way to my runner beans with two rows of canes tied at the top with a horizontal cane to keep them in place. This is attached to a post at each end.With the sweet peas I am going to run strings from the horizontal top cane to the ground (plus a bit to bury). I will put some vertical canes every 3′ on both sides of the row. When I plant the sweet peas I will plant the string under them. I have done this several times and the string never pulls out. In fact it is quite difficult to get the string out at the end of the season because the sweet pea roots have grown around it. It looks better if you keep the string fairly taught.I only use nylon string because ordinary string will rot off.

Last year I grew sweetpeas and they were very good indeed. I watered them every week with a weak comfrey liquid. One of the allotment holders near me said that her dad used to grow championship sweet peas using only comfrey liquid and I can believe her.

It is getting cold again tonight so I will not be watering. I like to keep my seedlings just damp so that I do not get any more damping off.