Sweet pea
Description and varieties. Sweet peas, received its name for its similarity to legume plants and a delicate aroma of flowers, has another, from a botanical point of view, a more accurate name - rank fragrant. Wealth of delicate and bright colors, subtle aroma and refinement of the flower - these are its main decorative advantages. Peas are a popular annual, giving as many inflorescences on one plant as no other plant, and therefore very much appreciated as a crop for cutting. Peas refers to the family of legumes, growing wild in the Mediterranean regions. This is an annual plant with ascendant or clinging to the support with antennals stems of 20 to 200 cm in length. Leaves are parodermorous with a branchy, strong antennae. Flowers are irregular, butterfly-shaped, large( the width of the sail is up to 5 cm), collected in brushes of 3-12 pieces, very fragrant, at the same time, 5-7 flowers can bloom. The color of the flower includes all shades from white and creamy through pink to maroon and from soft blue and lilac to dark purple, almost black. There is not only a pure yellow color, but breeders continue to work in this direction. Fruit - bob length of 4-7 cm, seeds are large, weight 1000 pieces - 60-100 g. Round, brown, germination retains 5-6 years. The root system is powerful, rod-shaped, highly branched.
Although the history of selection of peas is about 200 years, but for this relatively short time, about 10 thousand varieties belonging to 15 garden groups of this plant were created.
Sweet peas are widely grown on a cut as in warm( including film) greenhouses, and in the open ground. In planting it is planted to decorate walls, terraces, arbors and pergolas. Low grades are adorned with balconies and mixborders, and very low ones are suitable for crabs.
In terms of the upcoming flowering all varieties of garden sweet pea are divided into 3 groups:
early( P) - flowering in 50-55 days from sowing;
medium( C) - flowering in 60-65 days from sowing and
late( P) - after 75-80 days.
Red, dark red, chestnut
Cache Smith, Mars, Volcano ( all P); Jimmy, Kenneth, Lisa, Dina, Marilyn, Ramona ( C); Jubilee, Grenadier, Mahogany, Wilcam, Fire Glow and Scalit Glow ( P).
Pink, cherry
Emerichen Beauty, Etrexhn, Shirley Temple, Eileen, Eveli, Nancy ( P); Carmen, Diane, Margaret, Miranda and Gloria ( C); Dzirannem Pink, Molly, MRS, R. Bolton, Slaughterhouse Brier, Patricia, Anuin, Jai-ji, Love Song, Jupiter, Vines ( P).
Blue, lavender, lilac
Harmini, Meriner, Mamori, Triumph ( P); Frank J., Hazel, Peggy, Robert, Sileste, Eleanor, Grace, Louise ( C); King Lavender, Elizabeth Taylor, Caprai, Stilish, Flagship, Blue Swan, Nept-yun, Sachet ( P).
White, cream, with a pink edge
Cascade, Orient, White Harmony( U);Jenny, Janet, Marion, William, Lily, Stella ( C); Wat Joy, Crimea, Jayeghenik, Swan Lake, Beppi Best White, Riconisens, Alaska, Milky Way, Piuareti ( P).
Cultivation and care. Sweet peas - light-loving and cold-resistant plant, blooms abundantly at moderate temperatures, at high and lack of moisture, the flowers are melted and the flowering stops.
peas are grown in well-illuminated areas protected from prevailing winds with soils of high fertility. For a good flowering peas need light, fertile, but without fresh organic fertilizers, neutral( pH 7.0-7.5) soil. On wetlands of very light or heavy and especially acid soils, peas grow poorly and die. The good water and air permeability of soil and subsoil layer is important. In one place this plant can be planted no more than 2 years because of the accumulation of fungal infection. And to return to the old place can be only after 4-5 years.
Grow peas as an annual, sowing seeds in late March - early April. Seeds before sowing should be soaked in hot water( 60 ° C), germinate in a moist environment( wet sand, sawdust) and plant one at a time in peat bogs pots filled with a nutrient substrate. Seedlings appear after 5-7 days.
The period of growing seedlings is 35-40 days. During this time, give 2 top-dressing infusion Mullein( 1: 10) in the bucket on the greenhouse frame, watered rarely and abundantly. The main stem is plucked over the 2-3th leaf to strengthen the branching. For 10-12 days before planting in the open ground seedlings are hardened. Landing in the ground is made in early - mid-May at a distance of 20-25 cm, depending on the height of the variety. On the site for growing peas, from the fall, up to 7.5 kg of humus or compost, lime( at pH 6.5), up to 80 g of superphosphate and up to 60 grams of potassium sulfate per 1 m2 are poured into a deep digging. It is also desirable to apply bone, horny or blood meal to 50 g / m2.
Peas are sensitive to damage to the root system, so after planting there is a 2-week stop in growth. The plants are given 2 feeding:
the first - at the beginning of the growth of stems( slurry( 0.5 liters per plant) with the addition of 15 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium sulfate per 1 m2);
- the second - at the beginning of flowering( 5 grams of ammonium nitrate, 15 grams of superphosphate and 10 grams of potassium sulfate per 1 m2).
Potassium fertilizers with chlorine should not be used, as well as large doses of nitrogen fertilizers.
Water polka dots rarely, in a drought 1 time in 10 days, but abundantly. Without watering, growth stops, flowering deteriorates. In rows for a season, 4-5 loosening is done with weeding. You can plant peas directly into the soil with germinated seeds at the earliest possible time. Flowering in this case will begin 2 weeks later. When the seedlings are rooted and thrust into growth, high varieties must be tied to the support with a length of shoots of 15-20 cm.
There is evidence that, with an earlier sowing, in mid-March, and planting in the ground in early May, peas better tie seeds andless affected by viral diseases.
Inflorescences of especially high quality are obtained when growing peas on a system, when one or two strongest stems are selected at the beginning of the regrowth, and the remaining ones are removed. Later, all the stepsons and a part of the antennae are pricked, directing all the energy of the plant to flowering.
Flowering continues from June to frost. Seeds mature within 1.5-2 months after the onset of flowering, they are collected when the beans turn yellow.
Peas do not open flowers after cutting, so the inflorescence is cut off when the last flower blossoms. Multiflorous brushes are cut off when the lower flower has not yet begun to fade. Cut only early in the morning, until cool. You can cut with a knife or scissors or break out of the sinus.
Diseases and pests. The most common diseases are the black leg( fusarium and some other fungi), real and false powdery mildew( peronosporosis), gray mold( botrytis), brown spotting( ascohitosis), mosaic viruses and deforming pea mosaic, nodule weevils, several aphidsand grains.