STAKING AND TRELLISING 



tops of the boughs should not meet, as it is at this part 

 that so much space is wanted when the Peas are in full 

 growth, therefore by inclining your sticks outwards it 

 leaves room for all top growth and tends to keep your 

 vines in an upright position. Should your sticks not 

 be twiggy at the bottom, it will be found desirable to 

 insert a few short boughs between the taller sticks 

 wherever necessary. 



Now although we might all wish to stake our Sweet 

 Peas with boughs, in the majority of cases this is an 

 impossibility through our inability to procure them: 

 therefore, the question of the next best substitute 

 arises, and this is to be found in wire netting of four- 

 or six-inch mesh. The initial cost of this material is 

 certainly a drawback where a large area of Sweet Peas 

 is grown, but it will be found the cheapest in the long 

 run, lasting as it does for many years. Netting four 

 to six feet wide will be found sufficient for this locality, 

 but in cooler sections where the Sweet Pea vines flourish 

 as they do in our extreme Northern States, Canada, 

 and England, this width may have to be doubled. 

 Stakes to support the wire netting will have to be used, 

 driving these twelve or eighteen inches into the ground. 

 Some growers use only one row of wire netting, but we 

 believe in the double row, say twelve inches apart. 

 Another method is the use of soft, light jute twine. In 

 this case stout stakes are used, driving one into the 

 ground every five feet down the rows on either side of 

 the Peas, then running the twine from stake to stake, 

 commencing a few inches from the ground with six 

 inches between each length. This will be found a most 

 economical method of staking your Peas, though not 

 so satisfactory as boughs or wire netting. 



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