Hello again, its been a while.............
Well last year I had sweetpeas blooming by 1st May, from a September 1st sowing.......
For various reasons never got round to an autumn sowing last year and planted 5 different types in loo roll tubes about 2 weeks ago.... My greenhouse is not glazed yet, but the staging is built, so thats where they ended up. Draped some polythene sheet over the greenhouse frame to keep the wind off. This morning counted 15 seedlings.... none were chitted scraped sandpapered, soaked or any way assisted. Just pushed into moist compost.
The types I have are Mammoth mixed, Incense mixed, high scent and Kneehigh mix for containers. all from sweetpea specialists online, and the usual pound shop mix.
All chosen for maximum scent along with very different size and colour ranges..
Bit of experimenting on siting and soils this year.....
Some will go straight into a poor border soil, nothing done to it except top few inches dug over. riddled with tree and shrub roots all near the surface and at the other end of the scale a plot that has previously grown runner beans, been double double dug, ferociously weeded, had a barrow of well rotted pigmuck dug in, copious amounts of goose and hen muck and soiled straw bedding dug in, and rotvated.. all before winter ... I reckon I could get housebricks to sprout on that soil.......
The kneehigh mix will go in another border with decent well dug soil, and containers and maybe window boxes...
By the way, when I sowed the sweetpeas as described above I also sowed cauliflower carrot onion lettuce and some Gallardia and all of these sprouted well before the sweetpeas. Basically just in seedtrays sat on a bench outside...
Mentioning the greenhouse above, I will update the thread on it soon in the construction bit. Just the timberwork to finish on the roof and then glazing..........Using Acrylic..........about £700:00 worth of it.....Bit more than I thought !