plant half.. save half.. experiment ...

is there a winter sowing forum.. if so.. you might get more help there ..

good luck

ken

Hmmmm....the timing of sweet peas has always evaded me. I'm wondering if October might be a bit 'off' in your location. You know, too late for a fall display but too early for spring.

If you don't find some good help in the Winter Sowing Forum, you might try your local extension service. Seems like this question should be right up their alley.

Here in the west, zone 9, October is the ideal time to plant sweet peas. With the beginning of our wet, mild winter, the temperatures are perfect also for our slug/snail populations to expand and if not baited for, when sweet peas are planted, they will often eat the seedlings as they emerge. Planting now will assure the longest possible season of bloom before warm weather shuts them down. Al

I planted some sweet peas seeds in peat pots two weeks ago and one has sprouted quite strongly here in Southern California. One of my dogs fines peat pots very interesting to play with so I just sowed more seeds directly in the ground.

I just try to keep the soil around the sweet peas seeds relatively moist until the damp seasonal weather arrives. That's when sweet peas really start to grow well...

Well, we sure didn't help Max much, lol! I hope that he made that phone call to his local extension office!

When I lived in a much warmer climate than I do now, fall was the perfect time to plant sweet peas. What a treat to have those fragrant flowers during the fall and winter. It did seem sort of weird, though, to have bouquets of sweet peas around the house around Xmas!

Well, since we're all talking about our own situations, I'll say how about doing as we do here and starting them in a cold frame or indoors in January for planting out in March? I start them in toilet roll inners, although you can buy special long pots, as SPs like a long root run. Some suggestions at the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing sweetpeas