Sweet peas will make any garden fragrant and rich in color, but how tall do sweet peas grow? Since sweet peas are climbers, they can grow pretty tall, which can be helped or hindered based on how you maintain these beautiful flowers.
Generally, sweet peas can grow between one and two meters, or 3 to 6 feet tall. Sweet pea flowers grow on a vertical vine that needs some type of support to continue proper growth. Generally, sweet peas can grow between one and two meters, or three to six feet tall.
How Tall Do Sweet Peas Usually Grow?
There’s a variation in how tall sweet peas can grow, and that variance can’t be completely controlled. You might not realize just how tall your sweet peas have truly grown because they can wrap around supports depending on how you choose to hold them up in your garden.
However, most home grown sweet pea plants grow to around 6 feet tall when planted in the garden. More commonly when grown in pots or containers, sweet peas will grow to roughly 2 feet tall.
What Is A Healthy Size For Sweet Peas To Grow?
A healthy size for sweet peas to grow depends on where you’re growing them. The two main options which home growers usually use is either growing in a container, or growing in the garden.
Growing In A Container
You don’t want sweet peas grown in a container to reach heights higher than 1-2 feet. It could be difficult to maintain them if they get any taller. This is simply due to the location where they would usually be kept. For example, when growing sweet peas in containers, it’s likely that they will be grown off ground level, and perhaps on a walls or vegetable racking. Growing your sweet peas any taller than this could make it difficult work to maintain.
Growing In a Garden
In a garden, you have more freedom for how tall you let your sweet peas grow. Sweet pea plants can grow up to 6 feet tall when grown in the garden. Sometimes they may even exceed this height, but gain, maintaining a plant this tall will be hard work. Just make sure you have the right support in place to hold them up so they continue to grow properly, trimming them when they get above the 6 foot recommended height.
What Can Help Your Sweet Peas Grow Tall?
If you want to let your sweet peas flourish too great heights, you have a couple of options to make that happen which many people over look. These factors which you have to consider are pinching, spacing and deadheading.
Pinching
The best way to help your sweet peas grow to their full potential is to pinch them when they reach about six inches in height. You can do this with your hands, pinching the stem at the growing tip – the highest point of growth before the top leaves – and pulling it off. This helps to stimulate greater growth.
Spacing
Be sure your sweet peas have adequate space between each plant. You should leave about six inches between each sweet pea plant you put into the soil. Making sure there is enough spacing in-between each plant gives them enough space to grow, and gain as much sunlight as possible. When these factors are taken into consideration, your sweet pea plants may grow much healthier and taller than you believe.
Deadheading
The method of deadheading has been used for many years, but not all people are familiar with this particular gardening technique.
Deadheading is simply the removal of flowers or seed pods which look to be forming on your sweet pea plant. The reason for removing these is that when a plant begins its reproduction stage, it will stop growing. In most cases of all plants, when the seeds are dropped, the plant will often die, allowing more room for the dropped seeds to flourish next season. So it’s important to not allow the reproduction of your plant.
Sweet pea plants release hormones when flowers and seed pods begin to grow. This signals the reproduction stages is underway and the plant will stop growing. Removing the flowers and seed pods will eliminate the release of hormones, allowing your plant to continue growing throughout the entire season.
Best Methods Used For Sweet Peas To Grow Tall?
As mentioned, you need to help your sweet peas along if you want them to stay vertical. Some of the best methods used for sweet peas to grow tall are by using sweet pea rings, trellis’ and garden canes. The use of different utensils can aid the growth of your sweet pea plants. which is what we all want, right?
Sweet Pea Rings
A sweet pea support ring helps secure your sweet pea’s stem to a nearby support system. They are very inexpensive and don’t hinder the growth of the flowers in the process. These are best used when you do not have the necessary space for a trellis to be constructed. However, please be advised that if the rings are too tight, then they may begin to constrict your sweet pea plant when it start to grow tall. At this stage you should lose the rings if possible to allow bigger growth.
Trellis
A trellis is a frame, often made of metal or wood, that helps gently guide your climbing sweet pea plants upwards. They come in a few designs, and are the perfect way to support sweet peas. Obelisks and wigwams are similar, but will guide your sweet peas into different shapes. These fairly cheap contraptions are great for gardens which offer a bit more space. You can even build your own trellis’ yourself, commonly built with bamboo stakes, which are more than strong enough to support sweet pea plants.
Garden Canes
Garden canes (or stakes) look like tall sticks that you anchor into your soil, and are usually made of bamboo. You can secure your sweet peas to a garden cane to make sure they grow upright. These are best used in plant pots as they can secure the plant in the centre, without any difficulty putting them in.
Fertilizer
Using fertilisers to aid the growth of your sweet pea plants is one of the best methods you can use. For healthy, flourishing sweet pea plants you will need to use a general fertiliser, every couple of weeks throughout its growth. Ideally you will use a balanced fertiliser, for example either a 4-4-4 or 10-10-10 fertiliser.
Balanced fertilisers are usually a combination of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium compounds, which promote plant growth.
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