Should you pinch out your sweet pea flower seedlings, or leave them to grow as they want? You may be familiar with the term “pinching out” and feel it is a gardening job you simply must do. But is it?
In fact, it’s not quite as straight forward as you may think! Many scientists and gardeners debate whether you should bother pinching them out at all with some arguing it makes no difference to the amount of flowers a plant produces and in fact, can actually prevent stems from growing to a good length.
WHY PINCH OUT?
The argument for pinching out suggests that by snipping off the top part of the seedling, you will encourage the plant to produce more side shoots. It’s on the side shoots that the plant produces it’s flowers.
Think of it this way, away your little seedling is growing, reaching up to the sky towards the light. Suddenly, it encounters a problem, it’s top has been snipped off. There is danger ahead and the plant changes tactic. It can not grow up anymore for fear of decapitation, so it spreads itself sideways instead, throwing out shoots in a desperate attempt to grow bigger and stronger in any way it can!
WHY SHOULDN’T YOU PINCH OUT?
The counter argument is that plants simply do not need our help. A sweet pea is perfectly able to produce as many flowers as you would need without the need to force it to do so.
There’s also an argument that by creating more side shoots, you will be producing flowers that have a much shorter stem. If you are looking to pick the flowers to display in a vase, this is not good news.
Furthermore, pinching out forces the plat to grow more tendrils (those little green thin arms that the plant uses to cling onto the structure when it climbs). If you leave these tendrils on, the plant will actually stop producing an abundance of flowers for you. So it’s important to keep snipping them off.
HOW DO YOU PINCH OUT SWEETPEAS?
If you do decide pinching out is the way to go, how do you do it? Well, it’s important to wait for the plant to grow to about 4-6 inches tall first. I usually wait until the plant has produced 2 sets of leaves. Then you simply use your fingers to ‘pinch’ out the top of the plant just above the first set of leaves.
WHEN DO I PLANT THEM OUT?
You should wait for the plants to grow a few more leaves before planting outside. If you’ve grown them indoors on a windowsill, then it’s important to Harden them off first. Just bring them outside in the sun during the day and take them back in for the colder night for about a week or so before eventually planting them in their outdoor spot sometime in late March, early April.
Sweetpeas can cope with a bit of light frost, they are more hardy than their sweet flowers may appear! So don’t be afraid to get them outdoors.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Once they start growing and producing flowers, PICK THEM! The more you pick, the more that grow. It also stops them from forming seed pods, which you need to snip off straight away. Once the seeds come, the flowers stop.
Also, keep an eye on those tendrils and be sure to snip excess ones off. This will encourage more flowers.
PROBLEMS WITH SWEETPEAS
Pests: caterpillars and aphids are your main pests. Caterpillars are easy to deal with, just flick them off when you see them and keep their population down. Aphids only attack when the plant is under stress, so keep your sweet pea plants as happy and healthy as possible. Pick flowers regularly, water when it’s really hot and snip tendrils.
Mildew: This is a common problem for any plants that are planted close together, such as sweet peas! It’s a white powdery fungus that grows onto the leaves, spreading fast and killing the plant. You can control this by thinning the plants a bit allowing more air flow between them. Also, try not to water the leaves, just the ground. If it gets really bad, just remove the plants most affected.
I hope this helps if you are thinking of growing sweet peas this year. There are many amazing flowers you can grow in your vegetable garden to help pollinators! You can find my post on some of them here!
