Removing side shoots and tendrils from exhibition sweet peas.

These sweet peas have had their tendrils removed 

If you remove the tendrils and the side shoots of sweet peas, you get large stemmed flowers.  I cut the tendrils off with a pair of scissors and rub out the side shoots with my finger and thumb.  The tendrils and side shoots do not grow back.  Each leaf has its own tendril that will have to be removed.  New side shoots will grow int he axil of each leaf and new ones will grow from ground level.  If you leave the tendrils on they entwine themselves around the stems of the flowers and make them contort.

This is fine if you are just growing them for the house.  However, if you are growing for exhibition then you don't really want this to happen.  Removing their natural means of climbing causes them to flop about all over the place unless you tie them up.  I use wire because it is the most convenient way of doing it.

The problem with wire is that it can squash or even break the stem.  The convenience of using wire outweighs the disadvantages but to alleviate the disadvantages even more, I only tie around leaves.  If you break a leaf the plant will grow another.  If you break the stem then you have to wait until a side shoot is big enough to take over the main stem role.

If you think about it you will realise that the sweet pea is supported by its leaves when it climbs using its tendrils.  So the leaves and the leaf stalks  must be strong enough to bear the weight of the plant as it is climbing. I would suggest that this is a good way of tying up sweet peas.

I was going to feed all the sweet peas with dilute comfrey liquid but they are growing so quickly and healthily that I didn't think that they needed any further mollycoddling.  I hoed down each of the rows mainly to slow water evaporation and prevent the soil from drying out.    If you can keep the soil surface friable and loose it will keep the soil damp lower down.

Have a look at:
http://tonythegardener.blogspot.co.uk/p/how-i-grow-exhibition-sweet-peas.html

I find the hoe and the swoe most useful tools.  If used properly then you can remove a lot of weed seedlings relatively quickly by severing them from their roots.  While it can be used against bigger plants it is best to use it to remove small weed seedlings.  If you do it on a hot day the weed seedlings shrivel and die quickly.  I skim through the soil as shallowly as I can because going deeper will not necessarily cut off the roots.  I tend to use a Dutch hoe because they are strong enough to go through the toughest ground.  I sharpen my hoe so that it cuts through the soil easily.  I always try to hoe forwards standing in an adjacent row so that I do not tread on where I have just hoed.

I like to hoe regularly and always hoe where there does not seem to be any weeds.  This causes the just germinated weed seeds to be disturbed and die.

Apart from this, I find hoeing a very therapeutic activity because hoes are just the right for leaning on.

I planted another row of lettuce using comfrey liquid to water them in.  I would like to put some nematode worms around them but, as they have not arrived from Unwins, I do not have that option.

I have just enough space here for a row of celeriac and a couple more rows of leeks.  The only other space  on the allotment is between the peas and the climbing French beans.  I am hoping to put the dwarf French beans in here if I can nurture them to grow a little more.

Mick gave me some heirloom sweet peas so I planted these to make a column using canes and plastic netting.

I watered them in with comfrey liquid.  Only one oca plant seems to be growing at the moment.  I will continue to wait and see whether the other five are going to grow.

I didn't hoe up the potatoes again.  They seem to be making quite a good canopy over the soil and this will shade out all but the most persistent weeds.  A quick going over with the onion hoe will clear off any weeds that do grow.

Exhibition sweet peas - the next stage.

After starting the sweet peas off in the greenhouse:


http://tonythegardener.blogspot.com/2011/02/exhibition-sweet-pea-seedlings.html


they are planted next to the canes and then left to grow on for a while.  


Now the sweet peas need to be tied in and a main stem selected.  The other stems need to be cut off.  Only in this way will I get really big flowers. Remember that you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Only one shoot is needed on the Restormel sweet peas

Valerie Harrod Sweet peas with one main stem tied in to canes

Those on the left are not done those on the right are done.

The sweet peas are then tied to the canes because they will have no means of climbing otherwise.  As I have disturbed the plants, I gave them a good watering with comfrey liquid.  This seemed to have cheered them up quite a bit.


Then:
http://tonythegardener.blogspot.com/2011/05/removing-side-shoots-and-tendrils-from.html


There are two tubs in the photograph.  One is for the sweet pea side shoots and the other has all the wire ties.  Whatever I do, I cannot put the cut side shoots into the correct tub and have to go fishing to get them out of the wire ties tub.  Sort it out for goodness sake Tone.


I will be busy from now on removing side shoots and tying in the main stem that has been chosen.  The tendrils as well as the side shoots will be removed and tying in will be essential because the plants have lost their natural means of support.  If the plants are not tied in they flop about and grow in a contorted way leading to flowers that do not have straight stems.


I will continue to water the sweet peas with comfrey.  If you give them a fertiliser too high in nitrogen at this time of year it might lead to bud drop.

You can see that I have begun to put netting around the runner bean canes.   The runner beans are nearly big enough to go out now but there is still a great risk of frost.  The netting may help to prevent them from being too badly damaged by any frost we have.  The three White Apollo are tucked down this end of the row.  I have not protected the Blue Lake climbing French beans like this but I can easily replace them with the Cobra climbing French beans if they get caught by a frost.


The ground looks very dry here although there is some dampness a couple of centimetres down.  I am watering though.  The ground has not been prepared in any special way for the sweet peas.  They will grow well in any relatively fertile soil.


Last year I double dug this area because I was burying logs from the 6 silver birch we had taken down in the garden.  I dug the whole area so there were no dedicated trenches for the sweet peas.  I don't think that the logs and brushwood have rotted down yet but it did not seem to bother the onions last year and now the sweet peas.  I also used leylandii shreddings much to the consternation of other allotment holders.  They were suggesting that I would "poison my ground" if I used them.  While I would not used them to dig into the top soil,  I see no reason why they should not be used to increase the carbon content of the subsoil.  They are a bit acid and they will reduce the nitrogen content of the subsoil around them but I don't really mind.  Vegetable roots will not usually get that far down and if they do then it might be a reservoir of water retaining vegetation for them.  The top soil got a lot of tree leaves dug in but that was all.

I dug down 2 spits and then broke up the subsoil with a fork

I ran out of birch so I used leylandii shreddings

Double digging the sweet pea area February last year

The top soil had a lot of inoculated charcoal added when the onions were planted.  This is now mixed in well with the rest of the top soil.


The point is that I have not done anything special for the sweet peas this year.  I am just relying on the general fertility of the soil.  In fact I am relying on the sweet peas to increase the fertility of the soil by adding nitrogen when they are dug in at the end of the year.  Nothing should be wasted in a good garden.