Sweet Peas

St Patricks Day is here again and this means its time to start planting your favourite Sweet Peas. St Patrick's day traditionally marks the season for planting Sweet Peas, but they can be successfully planted here in Qld right through to the end of April. The correct preparation now will ensure a spectacular display in right into Spring.
	Soil Preparation Sweet Peas love full sun and a rich soil. Find a sunny site and dig in plenty of organic fertiliser. For best results, use Searles 5 in 1® Organic Plant Food. Sweet Peas also love a sweet soil, so add some Lime or Dolomite to the soil before planting. As a guide, apply approximately 150g Lime or Dolomite to each square metre of soil. They like a soil pH of about 6-7, so if you have a pH test kit, you will be able to test the soil to see if they need the Lime or Dolomite. Remember, once the soil is limed, it will slowly take effect, so you will not be able to accurately measure the final result until a couple of weeks after application.
Trellis Support The next step is to make sure you have a good strong trellis in place to support the vigorous growth. Do this before planting the Sweet Pea seeds. This way you won't disturb the seeds once planted. Planting Plant Sweet Pea seeds about 3cm deep and 7cm apart. This will give a good mass display. Cover them with Searles® Seed Raising Mix and lightly water in. Once the seedlings have four sets of leaves, nip off the top of the plant to encourage more side shoots. Fertilising When fertilising Sweet Peas, it is important to remember that they make their own Nitrogen & don't like being fertilised with extra Nitrogen. An ideal liquid fertiliser to use is Searles® Liquid Potash, which contains both Phosphorus & Potash. For excellent flowering, feed your Sweet Peas every 2 weeks with liquid potash right up to flowering. If you do this, you'll have a dazzling display of Sweet Peas covered in glorious blooms. Happy Gardening with Searles from the Searle family. © Copyright 2002 JC & AT Searle Pty Ltd You may make a copy of this Fact Sheet for your personal, non-commercial use only. Please do not make any other use of this Fact Sheet without first obtaining our permission.