Seedling novice!

[Vicy]

I got some onion seeds and sweat pea seeds for my birthday. I planted both in seedling pots in the conservatory at the end of Feb. The Peas have come on and today I transplanted them into a grow bag. The onion seedlings are taking much longer and I'm just worrying that they are dry or too wet, I can't seem to get it right.

Two questions:

With onion seedlings, when is the time to plant them into a grow bag and what's the ideal watering scenario?

Is it safe to put the sweet peas outside yet, and again how often to water?

Any help appreciated! Pictures below too

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forums @Vicy
Just keep your seedlings damp, and don`t plant them out until all danger of frost has passed. Usually here in the Southeast that`s not until May.

 

[Vicy]

Welcome to the forums @Vicy
Just keep your seedlings damp, and don`t plant them out until all danger of frost has passed. Usually here in the Southeast that`s not until May.

Thank you!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Hi there, welcome to the forum. By my methodology you are a bit late with your planting, I usually put sweet pea seeds in in October, I was a bit later this year, January I think , but they are still well ahead of yours. I put about a dozen out in the garden a couple of weeks ago and some more on a wigwam for cut flowers about a week ago. I still have some in the greenhouse 'Just in case', but I shall probably give them away soon. Sweet peas are really hardy, in a class with broad beans. The onions will probably come, it's vernal equinox today so it will be lighter and warmer all the time, You can let them come on a bit before you think of potting them on, you will see when the root makes the bottom of the tray, don't let it get so big you have to damage the root to get it out though.
Same goes for the sweet peas, don't let them go on until the roots are too tangled, you can tease them apart, they sell little 4inch pots with about a dozen plants in at garden centers, but at the seedling stage most things respond to TLC , keep it gradual. The exception? Have you 'Pinched out' those peas? Left to themselves sweet peas grow a tall, thin, spindly, plant, pinch out the growing bud and you will get two sturdy side shoots coming where the lower leaves join the stem, and a much better plant in the long run.

 

[Vicy]

Update-everything's doing well, the plants went outside this weekend!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Looking good, this rain is just what you need to get them out in the ground, they do appreciate being rained on after planting out, much better than watering.

 

[Tetters]

Actually, @Vicy I did wonder if you intend to plant any of your veggies in the ground, as Oliver says they would be better there.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

And when those sweet peas start flowering, pick them, all and often. They will fill your house with scent and as long as you pick they will keep giving you flowers until about September. Stop picking and they will start making seeds and stop flowering. For some reason the stems get shorter as the season goes on, make the most of the early long stems.

 

[Vicy]

And when those sweet peas start flowering, pick them, all and often. They will fill your house with scent and as long as you pick they will keep giving you flowers until about September. Stop picking and they will start making seeds and stop flowering. For some reason the stems get shorter as the season goes on, make the most of the early long stems.

I got it wrong, they are normal peas not sweet peas!

 

[Vicy]

Actually, @Vicy I did wonder if you intend to plant any of your veggies in the ground, as Oliver says they would be better there.

I would but my garden is 90% paving slabs and then a very thin boarder around that so it's not possible. I'm hoping in the future I can get an allotment!

 

[Tetters]

Or maybe get rid of some paving slabs and make a garden instead ?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Well hopefully they will be sweet anyway

Funny how it goes, last year I had a bumper crop of peas, this year I had problems with germination, and those I do have don't look great, doing better with the mangetout.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have taken up a lot of paving in my time. Sometimes you take up the paving, start to dig, and realise the paving was laid on accumulated rubbish and there is another layer buried a foot down
Make your containers as big as possible. The bigger they are the slower variation in temperature and moisture content will be, plants like things constant, or at least changing slowly, on the whole.
Narrow borders, how narrow is narrow? The peas won't want much and will grow up the fence with a bit of chicken wire against it.