saving sweet pea seeds..

[kentishgal]

my sweet peas are setting pods now...what is the best way to go about saving seeds for next year??

[rustylady]

Let the pods dry on the plant. Pick them before they pop, take the seeds out and store in a paper bag.

[Kleftiwallah]

BUT. . . .allowing your sweet peas to 'set seed' will slow down their flowering.

Cheers, Tony.

[PyreneesPlot]

I've done this for two couple of years (just in a paper bag when dry) and found the flowering of the saved seed less good than the original - plants a bit less gutsy and with fewer flowers.
May just be gardener incompetence or weather, of course.

[Kleftiwallah]

I normally buy my sweet pea seeds from a known seedsman/grower. this year I bought them from �saver and I cannot tell the difference!

Perhaps the �saver seeds/flowers don't last as long in the vase but that is the only downside.

Cheers, Tony.

[tamsin]

My saved seed ones from last year are looking excellent, although I do seem to have managed to miss out a few colours when picking the pods.

If they were F1 or more than one variety then the saved seeds might be different to the parents.

I'm still chopping the pods off so they keep flowering rather than produce seeds, anyone know when is the right time to stop so they have time to develop pods before frost?

[Nicos]

I'm still chopping the pods off so they keep flowering rather than produce seeds, anyone know when is the right time to stop so they have time to develop pods before frost?

That's sort of what I was wondering too tamsin.
(I think my plants will be gonnas quite a while before our first frost though)

[MyLifeWithAndrew]

I kinda know?

Don't know if I am doing this correctly, but the pods are dry when I remove them.
Can't say I had an abundance of flowers from last year's seeds, but they WERE free.
Also, I did plant sparingly & did not plant the entire batch.
This year, will do the same - remove the dry pods, and take out the seeds - but will plant ALL of the seeds next year.
That is, if I can get another generation out of them.
~*~
I'm not into flowers (can't eat most of them), but these are my husband's favorites.

[Two_Sheds]

My sweet peas are slowing down now (they never last more than a few weeks anyway on my sandy soil, despite feeding & watering): the stems are getting shorter and they're turning to pods quickly.

If I wanted to save the seed, I would select the best plants, rip out the rest, and then leave them to go brown & crispy