Starting Sweet Pea Seeds - Burrito Roll style.

I like to pre-sprout my sweet pea seeds using a method I call the “burrito roll”.

Sweet Pea Starting Tools

Why do I start my sweet pea seeds this way?
1. I only plant up seeds that germinate.
2. It gives me clear visuals of any seeds with hard coats, that need to be nicked (I wait a week, if the seeds do not swell, then I nick them.)
3. Mice, rats and birds are significantly less interested in germinated seed. (So when my seeds are the most venerable of being eaten, they are safe in their burrito rolls.)

Tools you will need:
Tray, Paper Towles, Gallon ziplok bags, masking tape, sharpie, water spray bottle (with a misting setting), and Sweet pea seeds!

***Unless you want a mix, I HIGHLY recommend just one variety per burrito roll, and only put more than one burrito roll in a ziplock bag, if you really trust yourself to keep them straight as you are moving them in and out of the ziplock bag to check on your seeds. ***

The method:

• Pick a tray big enough to hold a flat full paper towel, something with edges, so if seeds roll, they are caught in the tray.

• Layout one paper towel (if you have nice thick paper towels) or two (if you have thinner paper towels, like the recycled brand I use), as your base.

• With your spray bottle on “mist” wet your paper towel base. You want the paper towel damp, NOT wet. Make sure to get the full paper towel including edges.

• Gently pat down, smooth out your paper towel base.

• Layout your seeds, giving space around each seed. I like a nice grid, do what makes you happy.

• Gently (gently!) lay a single paper towel on top of your seeds, doing your best to not disturb the seeds. I like to then touch the four corners, so that the top paper towel sticks to the wet bottom towels.

• Mist the top paper towel, throughly.

• Gently (gently!) pat down the top paper towel, so your seeds are snug as a bug.

• Roll up your burrito. My paper towels are about an inch longer than my bags, so I fold over one end of the burrito, so it fits nicely.

• On masking tape, write out the variety, date and and amount of seeds. (I also like to note these details in an excel, yes, I’m that nerd and proud!)

• Label the bag with masking tape. (you can just write on the bag instead of masking tape, but I often resue my bags, so I use a light adhesive painters tape masking tape.)

• Put your burrito roll in the labled bag, push out all the air and seal.

• Place the bag on a shelf in your home, and we’ll come back in a few days to check on it. (room temperature will help speed up germination, you don’t need heat.)

• Wait 5 days.

Potting up your Sweet Pea starts

Tools: Sharpie, Plant Tags, pencil, Seed starting soil (I’m using the floret mix this season), Pot or seed trays, your seeds. Optional: tea.

The method:

• Prep your trays or pots, filling fully with your seed starting mix and weting down the soil. You want your soil damp, almost like brownie batter, only slightly dry batter, NOT sopping wet.

• Dribble holes for your seeds. I like to use a sharpie, as it’s big enough to give a nice dribble whole for the sprouted sweet pea seeds (and I don’t worry about breaking their little roots or sprouts), a pinkie finger also works well.

• On your plant tag, with a pencil (especially if you plan to reuse your plant tag, but if your using something like a wooden popsicle stick, use a sharpie, so it’ll hold up over the season) one one side write the variety, I like to add the date that the seeds were started (your burrito), and who I got the seeds from.

• Place your plant tag(s) before you even unroll your burrito. Lets not leave anything up to guessing (I have a full on perimenopausal brain, so I’m doing all the things to keep the details straight, IYKYK).

• Very slowly (you you might want to do this in the tray) unroll your burrito roll. If you get to your seeds at day 5, likely the roots have not burrowed into the paper towel, if you let your burrito sit longer before the first check, go even slower, as roots will grow into the paper towel, and we do NOT want to break the roots.

• Any seeds that have a root tail and sprout head, are ready to plant up. Leave any seeds that have not sprouted. At day 5, there is a good chance that not all your seeds have germinated, it can take upto 2 weeks, longer for seeds with hard shells. (Different varieties germinate at different rates, even within a variety, there can be a wide range in how long each seed takes to germinate [did you grow and mature at the same rate as your neighbor, or on your own schedule?? Lets give our seeds the same grace.])

• Being careful as you lift your sprouted seeds, move them to you dribbled holes in your pots or trays. If possible, try to drop them into the holes, root down, but it’s hard, so if some go in upside down, don’t worry, plants are smart, they will work themselves out (but it might take an extra day or two for these to sprout, as the sprout has to do a little extra growing to move toward the sky.)

• Only cover the dribble holes you’ve dropped sprouted seeds into, leave the rest open, so you know where to start planting on the next round.

• Move your trays/pots to an unheated greenhouse or protected spot outside. Keep in mind sweet peas like to grow in cool/cold conditions and can take (actually they like) some light frosts.

• Any un-sprouted seeds will stay in their burrito. If your burrito paper towels have dried out, re-mist them before rolling the unsprouted seeds back up.

• Place burrito roll back in its bag, reseal, and place back inside on a shelf.

• Start checking seeds every other day, and plant up any freshly sprouted seed, as they sprout.

• Ideally seeds are getting potted up as they sprout, because if they are left too long in the burrito they get stressed, and super leggy, as they reach for the light, this is not the best start (though I plant several of these every year, because life happens.)

Further ways to protect your baby plants from mice, rats, birds (and deer).

Now, if you have a LOT of mice/rate/bird pressure, and it’s early in the season before there’s a lot of food sources, your sprouted seeds are still at risk of getting eaten. Here are some additional precautions you can take, to help protect your sweet pea babies.

If you are sowing into standard trays, place a humidity dome over the baby starts (you’ll want to remove this once the plants are an inch or two tall.)

or a trick I learned from Higgledy Gardens, Clear tote/bin cold frames: grab a clear tote bin (or several), drill small holes in all the sides, top, and bottom, and presto you have a mini portable coldframe! (Holes are to allow air flow, rain to come in the top and drain out the bottom.)

Photos show a bin I picked up as part of a three pack from costco a few years back. This bin works great for 2” and 4” pots. I also found a larger bin at a big box hardware store that fits 1020 trays (I found a tray at said store, carried it over to the tote/bin section and tried all the bins till I found one that worked for me).

These clear tote-cold frames are mouse, rate, bird and deer proof (and full grown slugs, though those baby slugs find a way…), so you can put them out anywhere that gets full sun and feel confident. On warm/sunny days, you’ll likely want to take the top off, but make sure to put it back on for overnight. I live somewhere that gets regular late winter/early spring rain, so I also prop up my bins on a couple of bricks, to help with drainage. And if it looks like we are going to have a stretch of snow (which is rare for me), I can easliy move my totes to a more protected spot, but keep in mind sweet peas like to grow in cool/cold conditions.

I’d love to hear how this works for you, and what your tricks and tips are!