Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Freerider on March 23, 2007, 18:06

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: Freerider on March 23, 2007, 18:06

Hi all, I have grown sweet peas from seed over the winter in cold greenhouse.
The plants were really healthy and I re-potted them 3 weeks ago. Since then, some of their leaves have curled up and are brittle.  :(

Any ideas what has caused this and what to do about it?
Thanks in advance.

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: Aunt Sally on March 23, 2007, 18:28

Has the compost dried out  :?:  

or are they in a drying draft  :?:  

Did they wilt first  :?:

Are the stems damaged near the base  :?:

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: shaun on March 23, 2007, 19:52

sounds like they need a bit of food.
why did you re-pot them,your better of growing them in 3" pots or module trays from the start and planting straight out(dont know if this would cause curly and brittle leaves though)its just something i have always done.
have you got a pic ?

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: Freerider on March 23, 2007, 20:45

Quote from: "Aunt Sally"

Has the compost dried out  :?:  

or are they in a drying draft  :?:  

Did they wilt first  :?:

Are the stems damaged near the base  :?:

No, No, No and the stems look perfectly healthy - it's just the leaves that have curled up. A picture can be seen here: Sweet Pea (http://www.snowdreamsoftware.co.uk/plants/sweetpea.jpg)

Grew them in cells but they got too big and thought it was too early to plant outside.

Is it still too early to plant them outside now? (South East)

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: Aunt Sally on March 23, 2007, 21:08

Looks like some kind of shock to me.  Possibly cold snap on soft leaves.  

They look very healthy otherwise.  Just remove the affected shoots and it will make them bush out even more :D

Sweet peas are very hardy but you must make sure to harden them off well before planting them out as they think they are little greenhouse girls at present.  :lol:

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: shaun on March 23, 2007, 21:21

it was quite cold earlier this week so it might have been that

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: Freerider on March 23, 2007, 21:24

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate your help.

Title: Sweet Pea leaves curling
Post by: shaun on March 23, 2007, 21:29

sure they will be fine ,like aunty says they are quite hardy,anyhow for backup its not to late to sow some more you could take the chance and sow em outside now