Friday 23 July 2010

Experiment...

In the spring I sowed two lots of sweet peas - a lovely, deep wine colour, called Beaujolais Burgundy - and planned to do a little experiment.




When the seedlings were about 4" high, I pinched out the middle of one lot and left the others to do their thing.




This is the tub of unpinched-out sweet peas:



And this is the tub of pinched-out sweet peas.  A clear winner, I think!  These plants are so much more robust, with bigger leaves and loads more flowers to come.




Last year, after experimenting again, I came to the conclusion that sowing them in the autumn or the spring didn't really seem to make much difference.  So now I know!

6 comments:

  1. Brilliant experiment - those pinched out ones look so much healthier! I pinched out my sweet peas but not my eating peas, which are spindly and quite rubbish.

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  2. And now we know too - thank you!

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  3. I am the same as Silverpebble. Pinched out sweetpeas but not peas. Sweetpeas in abundance - eating peas spindly with barely a pea pod per stem!!! Please update us with your experiments and remind us when the bulbs are going cheap in M & S!!! (Please)! x

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  4. i shall snip out from now on ~ thanks : )

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  5. I shall just admire them from afar.

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  6. What a difference! Thank you so much for passing along the hint. K x

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