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Sweet Peas not growing

17 years ago

Hello there.

I planted 8 different types of sweet peas about 8 to 10 weeks ago, some fresh seed and some probably kept too long. But all the plants have the same problem....they are not growing very tall, not more than 2 feet. One variety (fresh seed) has a bloom already. Don't most sweet peas grow quite tall? The soil is loamy and I've watered regularly. I can't see any pests either. What might be the problem? Wendy in Niagara, zone 6.

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Comments (4)

deep___roots
17 years ago
Not familiar with your summers. Is it hot/humid there? Sweet peas don't like that. I know you freeze in Winter.

In Northern CA, we sow seed in ~ November. Plants flower in ~ May thru July, then they turn tan, set seed & die. I know they use all that cool CA winter time (4-5 months) to make roots and store up energy for flowering. Then in April, they really start to grow. Checking my collection of gardening pictures, I see plants in mid-March that are less than 6 inches tall. By mid-April, they are 3 feet tall. Now, they are 7 feet.

Maybe you could sow earlier for better success? Sweet peas can be sown when temps are quite cold, but still near or above freezing.

You had a flower after 10 weeks...that sounds encouraging anyway. My best guess is the plant senses the end is near and is trying to set seed before Summer gets real hot.
tabbycat55
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks deep_roots. That does make sense. It is quite hot and humid today.......30 celsius....about 90F? And we've had quite a bit of that lately. I've done very little direct sowing, so I will definitely start SP much earlier next year and hope for better results.
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Thanks, everyone... this was a new experiment, so I guess I will just have to hope that they grow a bit more! I am actually in SW PA near Pittsburgh, and we have fairly hard winters (fairly cold, but not a ton of snow). We are just off a river, too, so the cold winds do a number on my outlying garden! I haven't had too much luck with fall sowing, though some sunflowers came up this spring. I can certainly *try* it, though! Part of the problem here was a really late snow and ice patch right around Easter- a lot of stuff froze off and is doing poorly. I planted these well after that, but they just don't seem to be doing well. They look healthy enough, green and such, but just aren't growing. I had hoped to train them over a larger trellis, but at this rate they may not even get past the one footer I have them on now. The weather has been pretty sunny and warm (70s and 80s), and I have watered just about daily when we have a stretch without rain. They get full sun for most of the day... Thanks for the advice, I will keep an eye on them!
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I planted these seeds last year in July and it took them forever to start to bloom. The bloom, I saw was not a flower, but some kind of colorless inflorescence. The vine looked like regular sweet pea vine, and it was very thick. It was shading out light to over plants. It also required constant tending tying and restaking. When I look at the seed package picture (see the link below), I was like this is not what I wanted at all. I don't know if the nicer flowers were coming later,(as pictured) but I had to remove the vine. It had all the bad things about sweet peas, but none of the good things as in flowers. I am looking for an annual vine, because I want something fast growing to take out or change every year. My soil is rich and that is part of the problem. It may have been better for a poor dry soil, and then we had an El Nino this spring, so it got too much water. Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet Pea Perennial Blend Seed
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aliska12000
17 years ago
We are having a heat wave with high humidity and so far the sweet peas are ok, some are over 1 foot tall now. This is my first try with them. I water them every night because they are in a hot spot, don't care if they don't get too tall because I'm just experimenting with them and didn't have a sunny spot with anything really tall to climb on, don't want strings hanging down my front porch.

Don't know if they will bloom or not. I don't know how long this heat wave is going to last, and anything could happen with them. They did germinate well, got them in the ground in late May/early June, first scraggly ones died, later ones ok so far.

I have chicken wire covering a little trellis on one side of the porch steps and an old wine rack with bamboo poles stuck down into it on the other side. I am noticing that the little tendrils are fussy about what they want to grab onto, but then some finally do. They don't seem to like the polished metal wine rack much, but the chicken wire and bamboo poles a few are grabbing onto.
triple_b
17 years ago
My attempts at sweet peas have always been met with so-so success. I will get a few flowers out of them but they don't get overly tall or abundant. I suppose I am starting them too late too.

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