Hello,

Well I guess the title is pretty explanatory!

I have tried the budget version of planting sweet pea seeds in loo rolls and had epic fails.

The cardboard absorbs A LOT of water.

The water doesn’t seep down into the roots, because that cardboard absorbs it instead.

The cardboard doesn’t disintegrate at the rate the sweet peas need it to. This restricts root growth.

Sweet Peas are heavy feeders, their roots need to get hold of their energy source yesterday, not in a week or two’s time.

Sweet Peas drink a lot of water, they need a lot of water and are not like a succulent that can go without.

Out of curiosity, and wondering why I had epic fails with the loo rolls, I dug down into the soil to the sweet pea roots, some of the loo rolls were semi intact, some of the loo rolls had partly disintegrated but not much,  most of the loo rolls I lifted out of the ground, the roots were very dry. So even during the growing season the roots weren’t getting enough of everything because they were stunted in the loo roll. And I watered a lot.

Enough said. Use some starter pots at least 8cm deep by 5cm wide.

Plant your sweet pea seedlings out into the garden as soon the plants are established and not root bound.

A good indicator is lifting up your pots and if you see the roots starting to go through the bottom holes, that’s your indicator to plant them outside. Some people swear by hardening off seedlings, try to do it. Hardening off is when you take seedlings started indoors and put them outside  during the day and take them in over night for approx. 5 days to get them use to the weather before planting them directly into the ground.

Happy Sweet Pea Gardening,

Jude x