Presprouting Sweet Peas

Good Saturday morning all.  Just a bonus blog here.  I wanted to include this photo in Sharon Rico's sweet pea article, but I didn't have it at the time the blog was posted.  I wanted to share this with you if you were planning on planting sweet peas for your yard.

I too grow sweet peas and have taken Sharon's advice in pre-sprouting or 'chitting' sweet peas.  I use the paper towel method. However, there are other methods of preparing sweet pea seeds for growing: soaking the seed in hot water, using sandpaper to scratch the surface of the seed or also nipping a tiny bit out of the seed coat.

In this picture are the dry sweet peas, the smaller darker colored seeds in the middle of the group.  There are also the plumped up seeds. This happens just before they put out their first little root, which is the other seed you see here in this photo below.

Sweet pea pre-sprouting. (photo by Jennifer Baumbach)

My sweet pea seeds are planted and the seedlings are already breaking through the soil!

Sprouts breaking through soil. Note the snail bait.

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