Culture of the Sweet Pea 709 



An English seedsman advertises sweet pea ladders for use in training 

 the vines in garden decoration. The ladders are made six feet long and 

 six inches wide. They are used perpendicularly, the tops being fastened 

 to a horizontal wire. Two rows are supported by leaning the tops together 

 and fastening them to an overhead horizontal wire. Plants grown in 

 circles may be brought together in the center at the top, where the ladders 

 are fastened to a center stake. Sweet pea arches are sometimes made. 

 These, of coiirse, should never be over six feet high or they would seldom 

 be covered. 



Now the ladders can be easily made with two No. 10 galvanized wires, 

 rose stakes of the proper length, and some smaller wire for the rungs 

 or cross wires. The arches can also be made complete, if desired, by 

 merely making the ladder long enough and bending it into the form of 

 an arch. 



Cultivation 



Tillage, watering, and mulching. — Frequent cultivation should be 

 the rule in growing sweet peas. A very liberal use of the hoe or the ctd- 

 tivator in maintaining a loose, shallow surface mulch is imperative for 

 success. Proper preparation of the soil, coupled with such treatment, will 

 do much to obviate the necessity of watering. 



Watering should not be begun until it is absolutely necessary in order 

 to prevent the plants from siiffering. When necessary the applications 

 should be thorough, and in very dry periods at least two or three times 

 a week. 



A mulch of thoroughly rotted manure around the plants will alone 

 lessen the effects of drought, and will also prevent too rapid loss of water 

 when it is appHed. 



Dispodding. — In order to have fine flowers and a long succession of 

 bloom, it is infinitely more necessary to keep the seed pods rigorously 

 picked off than it is to cultivate, mulch, or water. The latter operations 

 go for naught unless the pods are picked off. The writer thoroughly 

 believes that the importance of watering has been overemphasized and 

 that too many amateurs prefer to use the hose rather than to pick pods; 

 then they assert that the sweet pea is not what it used to be, that it has 

 lost constitution, and the like. Of course, the more highly developed 

 the variety, the less certain it is to bear up under neglect. There were 

 on the trial grounds at this station in 19 10 some of the oldest varieties, 

 introduced from 1865 to 1890, then the latest hooded and grandifloras, 

 and finally the waved type. Although no pods were picked from the 

 first two types after July 20, there was a noticeable difference in the 

 flowering habit. The old varieties were continuously blooming profusely, 

 while the second class were sometimes completely destitute of flowers. 



