STARTING SWEET PEAS INDOORS
- Rachel
- Dec 29, 2020
- 2 min read
What the heck are we going to do with these toilet paper rolls? Start sweet peas!
Welcome to my garden! I'm going to use these empty toilet paper rolls as little containers to start growing some sweet pea seeds indoors. Join me!
If you're not familiar with sweat peas, they're climbing annuals that look and smell beautiful during the summer months. See the picture below of cut sweet peas in a vase:
To start, you want a container that's long and somewhat narrow, to encourage the roots to grow down. Thus, toilet paper rolls. Or, you can use a root trainer (here) if you'd prefer.
That way they'll be well-established when you're ready to plant them outside.
Supplies:
Toilet Paper / Paper Towel / Wrapping Paper rolls OR Root trainer
Potting soil
Sweet Pea Seeds (you can soak these overnight beforehand, but it's not required)
Plastic tray or container
Directions:
If your rolls are longer than toilet paper size, cut them down
Fold one end in a little to keep the dirt from falling all the way through
Place rolls in the plastic container. They should be touching one another, which helps keep them all moist and keeps them from flopping over.
Fill the rolls with soil. This makes a mess. It's ok.
Put 2 seeds in each roll. Poke them down into the soil. Add more soil if needed.
Water and place in a sunny window.
After Care:
Keep them wet but not soggy
Watch for little sprouts and leaves to appear! Post pictures and do a happy dance
If they get too lanky (often due to lacking sunlight) you can prune them, (cut the tops off with scissors but leave a few leaves)
I'm excited to try this! My sweet peas weren't very good last year. The ones I sowed indoors didn't have enough space or soil to establish good roots because I didn't plant them in the right containers. And the ones sown directly into the ground had poor soil, lots of competition from the chives next door and not much love. They did grow about 2 ft tall and had a few blooms. But here's hoping this year's even better!
Have you grown sweet peas? Or anything else indoors?
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