The vetch, with its radiant blaze of colour, ranging from various shades of blue to crimson and white, is a typical cottage garden plant. It climbs to heights of up to two meters and quickly covers bare walls and fences with greenery. Most sweet peas are annuals and can easily be grown from seeds you collect yourself or from seeds you can buy.

Vetch seeds should not be harvested until they are fully ripe

fruits and seeds

From the beautiful butterfly blossoms, the vetch forms legumes that open at the back and belly seam as they ripen. Each pod contains about eight seeds that are wingless.

Harvest your own seeds

If you cultivate vetches in your garden, you can collect the seeds yourself in the fall and sow them the following spring. It is important that the seeds are harvested when they are fully ripe. It must be possible to open the pod with just a little pressure and release the grains.

Dry and store seeds

Let the seeds dry on paper towels for a few days to prevent them from rotting or getting moldy. Then keep it in small paper bags until the next gardening season. Be sure to label so you don't confuse vetch seeds with the seeds of other plants.

sow vetch

In spring you can sow the robust vetches directly at the planned location in the garden. In humid regions or in areas where there is a risk of late frosts, you should prefer the vetch indoors:

  • Soak the hard seeds in lukewarm water overnight.
  • Place seeds a few centimeters apart in seed trays filled with potting soil.
  • Vetch are dark germs. For this reason, cover the seed with soil. A layer of one to two centimeters is sufficient.
  • Moisten with a sprayer and germinate in a light, but not full sun, place at temperatures of around 15 degrees.

After the ice saints, you can plant the sweet peas directly in the later place in the flower bed.

Seeds cost the plant a lot of energy

During the summer, you should regularly remove faded flowers so that the vetch blooms profusely and does not put all its energy into seed formation. In addition, vetch spread very quickly and could even become a plague.

Category:

Vegetable garden